The 2007 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2007, at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was broadcast on television in 115 countries. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players.
Freshman Greg Oden from Ohio State University was drafted first overall by the Portland Trail Blazers, who won the draft lottery. However, he missed the 2007–08 season due to microfracture surgery on his right knee during the pre-season. Another freshman, Kevin Durant, was drafted second overall from the University of Texas by the Seattle SuperSonics, and went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award for the 2007–08 season. Oden and Durant became the first freshmen to be selected with the top two picks in the draft. Al Horford, the son of former NBA player Tito Horford, was drafted third by the Atlanta Hawks. Of the three top picks, Durant has been a League MVP, a two-time finals MVP and perennial All-Star while Horford has enjoyed a solid All-Star career. Oden, however, was beset by numerous microfracture surgeries on both knees that limited him to only 82 games from 2008 to 2010.
On the night after the draft, the Seattle Supersonics traded seven-time All-Star Ray Allen along with the draft rights of the 35th pick Glen Davis to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and the draft rights to the 5th pick, Jeff Green. The Portland Trail Blazers and the New York Knicks were also involved in a multi-player trade that sent Zach Randolph to the Knicks and Steve Francis to the Blazers. Apart from those two trades, nine further draft-day trades were announced.
The 2007 draft marked the first time three players drafted in the top 10 came from the same school: the University of Florida. Florida, the 2007 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Basketball champion, tied the record set by the University of Connecticut in 2006 with five players selected in the first two rounds of an NBA draft. Florida joined nine other schools, including Connecticut, that had five players selected in an NBA draft, second only to UNLV, which had six players selected in the eight-round 1977 draft. Five players who competed in the 2007 NCAA Basketball National Championship Final were selected in the top 10; three players came from Florida, and two players came from the runner-up, Ohio State University. This draft also set the record number of freshmen drafted in the first round when eight freshmen were selected. Of the 60 players drafted, eight were freshmen, five were sophomores, 14 were juniors, 20 were seniors, and 13 were international players without U.S. college basketball experience. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors all did not have a draft pick this year, although Indiana and Toronto each acquired a drafted player's rights after the draft. As of 2025, the only remaining active NBA players from this draft are Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Mike Conley, and Jeff Green.
The 2007 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2007, at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was broadcast on television in 115 countries. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players.
Freshman Greg Oden from Ohio State University was drafted first overall by the Portland Trail Blazers, who won the draft lottery. However, he missed the 2007–08 season due to microfracture surgery on his right knee during the pre-season. Another freshman, Kevin Durant, was drafted second overall from the University of Texas by the Seattle SuperSonics, and went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award for the 2007–08 season. Oden and Durant became the first freshmen to be selected with the top two picks in the draft. Al Horford, the son of former NBA player Tito Horford, was drafted third by the Atlanta Hawks. Of the three top picks, Durant has been a League MVP, a two-time finals MVP and perennial All-Star while Horford has enjoyed a solid All-Star career. Oden, however, was beset by numerous microfracture surgeries on both knees that limited him to only 82 games from 2008 to 2010.
On the night after the draft, the Seattle Supersonics traded seven-time All-Star Ray Allen along with the draft rights of the 35th pick Glen Davis to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and the draft rights to the 5th pick, Jeff Green. The Portland Trail Blazers and the New York Knicks were also involved in a multi-player trade that sent Zach Randolph to the Knicks and Steve Francis to the Blazers. Apart from those two trades, nine further draft-day trades were announced.
The 2007 draft marked the first time three players drafted in the top 10 came from the same school: the University of Florida. Florida, the 2007 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Basketball champion, tied the record set by the University of Connecticut in 2006 with five players selected in the first two rounds of an NBA draft. Florida joined nine other schools, including Connecticut, that had five players selected in an NBA draft, second only to UNLV, which had six players selected in the eight-round 1977 draft. Five players who competed in the 2007 NCAA Basketball National Championship Final were selected in the top 10; three players came from Florida, and two players came from the runner-up, Ohio State University. This draft also set the record number of freshmen drafted in the first round when eight freshmen were selected. Of the 60 players drafted, eight were freshmen, five were sophomores, 14 were juniors, 20 were seniors, and 13 were international players without U.S. college basketball experience. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors all did not have a draft pick this year, although Indiana and Toronto each acquired a drafted player's rights after the draft. As of 2025, the only remaining active NBA players from this draft are Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Mike Conley, and Jeff Green.
Draft selections
^a: Yi Jianlian's year of birth has been widely disputed, with several sources claiming that Chinese basketball authorities falsified his year of birth from 1984 to 1987 to allow him a longer period of competition in international junior tournaments. A dedicated section of Yi's Wikipedia article discusses this issue and includes sources.
^b: Joakim Noah, who was born in the United States to a French father and a Swedish mother, has dual U.S. and French citizenship. He has represented France internationally since 2011.
^c: Taurean Green, who was born in the United States, became a naturalized citizen of Georgia in 2010. He has represented Georgia internationally since 2010.
Notable undrafted players
These players were not selected in the 2007 NBA draft but have played at least one game in the NBA.
Draft lottery
The first 14 picks in the draft belonged to teams that had missed the playoffs; the order was determined through a lottery. The lottery would determine the three teams that would obtain the first three picks on the draft. The remaining first-round picks and the second-round picks were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss record in the previous season. On April 20, 2007, the NBA performed a tie-breaker to determine the order of the picks for teams with identical win–loss record.
The lottery was held on May 22, 2007, in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Portland Trail Blazers, who had the seventh-worst record in the previous season, won the lottery with just a 5.3% chance to win. This was the fourth time that the Blazers had the first overall draft pick and the first time that the Blazers won the draft lottery since it was introduced in 1985. The Seattle Supersonics, who had the fifth-worst record, and the Atlanta Hawks, who had the fourth-worst record, obtained the second and third pick, respectively.
Three teams who had the worst records—the Memphis Grizzlies, the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks—obtained the fourth, fifth and sixth pick, respectively. These were the lowest possible picks they could have obtained through the lottery. The most recent draft in which the three worst teams did not receive the top three picks was in 1993.
Below were the chances for each team to get specific picks in the 2007 draft lottery, rounded to three decimal places:
^1: Atlanta Hawks' pick would be conveyed to the Phoenix Suns if it was not in the top three.[r]^2: New York Knicks' pick was conveyed to the Chicago Bulls.[l]^3: Indiana Pacers' pick was conveyed to the Atlanta Hawks because it was not in the top ten.[m]
Eligibility
The basic requirements for draft eligibility are:
All drafted players must be at least 19 years of age during the calendar year of the draft (i.e., born on or before December 31, 1988).
Any player who is not an "international player", as defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.
The CBA defines "international players" as players who permanently resided outside the U.S. for three years before the draft, did not complete high school in the U.S., and have never enrolled at a U.S. college or university.
The basic requirement for automatic eligibility for a U.S. player is the completion of his college eligibility. Players who meet the CBA definition of "international players" are automatically eligible if their 22nd birthday falls during or before the calendar year of the draft (i.e., born on or before December 31, 1985).
A player who is not automatically eligible must declare his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 60 days before the draft. An early entry candidate is allowed to withdraw his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 10 days before the draft. On June 19, 2007, NBA announced that 32 college players and 6 international players had filed as early-entry candidates for the 2007 Draft, while 46 players who had previously declared as early entry candidates had withdrawn from the draft.
Early entrants
College underclassmen
The following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.
The 2007 NBA draft is considered to be the 29th NBA draft to have utilized what is properly considered the "green room" experience for NBA prospects. The NBA's green room is a staging area where anticipated draftees often sit with their families and representatives, waiting for their names to be called on draft night. Often being positioned either in front of or to the side of the podium (in this case, being positioned somewhere within what was known at the time as the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden), once a player heard his name, he would walk to the podium to shake hands and take promotional photos with the NBA commissioner. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. From there, the players often conducted interviews with various media outlets while backstage. However, once the NBA draft started to air nationally on TV starting with the 1980 NBA draft, the green room evolved from players waiting to hear their name called and then shaking hands with these select players who were often called to the hotel to take promotional pictures with the NBA commissioner a day or two after the draft concluded to having players in real-time waiting to hear their names called up and then shaking hands with David Stern, the NBA's commissioner at the time.
The NBA compiled its list of green room invites through collective voting by the NBA's team presidents and general managers alike, which in this year's case belonged to only what they believed were the top 15 prospects at the time. Despite having the same number of invites for this year's draft as the previous year's draft, there would still be a couple notable discrepancies involved with the invitations at hand between the missing invitation for the #12 pick, Thaddeus Young, to showcase the perfect top 16 invitation listing this year and arguably a missing invitation for future All-Star Marc Gasol (brother of Hall of Famer Pau Gasol) to go with it. With that in mind, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.
c 12 Philadelphia acquired the draft rights to 20th pick Jason Smith from Miami in exchange for the draft rights to 21st pick Daequan Cook, a 2009 second-round draft pick and cash considerations.
d Portland acquired James Jones and the draft rights to 24th pick Rudy Fernández from Phoenix in exchange for cash considerations. The trade was finalized on July 11, 2007.
e 12 Portland acquired the draft rights to 30th pick Petteri Koponen from Philadelphia in exchange for the draft rights to 42nd pick Derrick Byars and cash considerations.
f Houston acquired the draft rights to 31st pick Carl Landry from Seattle in exchange for a 2008 second-round draft pick and cash considerations.
g 12 Utah acquired the draft rights to 38th pick Kyrylo Fesenko from Philadelphia in exchange for the draft rights to 55th pick Herbert Hill and future draft considerations.
h Indiana acquired the draft rights to 39th pick Stanko Barać from Miami in exchange for a 2009 second-round draft pick.
i 12 Dallas acquired the draft rights to 44th pick Reyshawn Terry from Orlando in exchange for the draft rights to 60th pick Milovan Raković.