The 1994 NBA draft took place on June 29, 1994, at Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. Two NBA rookies of the year were picked in the first round, as Jason Kidd and Grant Hill were co-winners of the award for the 1994–95 NBA season. Kidd and Hill would end up as perennial All-Stars (10 and 7-time selections, respectively), though Hill's career was marred by severe injuries.
The first overall pick Glenn Robinson was involved in a contract holdout shortly after being selected, reportedly seeking a 13-year, $100 million contract. Both Robinson and the Milwaukee Bucks eventually agreed on a 10-year, $68 million contract, which once stood as the richest contract ever signed by a rookie in professional sports. A fixed salary cap for rookies was implemented by the NBA the following season. Robinson himself had a productive NBA career, becoming a two-time NBA All-Star and winning an NBA Championship in 2005 in his final year with the San Antonio Spurs.
This is the final draft to date to see all of the first three picks make All-Star rosters with the teams that originally drafted them.
Notable undrafted players
These players went undrafted in 1994 but played in the NBA.
Early entrants
College underclassmen
For the twelfth year in a row and the sixteenth time in seventeen years, no college underclassman would withdraw their entry into the NBA draft. However, it would be the eighth time in nine years that players that left college early to play professionally overseas would declare entry into the NBA draft as an underclassman of sorts, with the University of Kansas' Darrin Hancock playing for the Aix Maurienne Savoie Basket in France and the University of Alabama's Cedric Moore playing for the GSSV Donar out in The Netherlands. With their inclusions, the official number of underclassmen would increase from eighteen to twenty total players. Regardless, the following college basketball players successfully applied for early draft entrance.
- Maurice Barnett – C, Elizabeth City State (junior)
- Jamie Brandon – G, LSU (junior)
- Charles Claxton – C, Georgia (junior)
- Rennie Clemons – G, Illinois (junior)
- Sedric Curry – F, North Dakota (junior)
- Yinka Dare – C, George Washington (sophomore)
- Thomas Hamilton – C, Wabash Valley (freshman)
- Lemon Haynes – F, Augusta (junior)
- Juwan Howard – F, Michigan (junior)
- Jason Kidd – G, California (sophomore)
- Voshon Lenard – G, Minnesota (junior)
- Donyell Marshall – F, Connecticut (junior)
- Lamond Murray – F, California (junior)
- Glenn Robinson – F, Purdue (junior)
- Jalen Rose – G/F, Michigan (junior)
- Clifford Rozier – F, Louisville (junior)
- Johnny Tyson – C, Central Oklahoma (junior)
- Dontonio Wingfield – F, Cincinnati (freshman)
Invited attendees
The 1994 NBA draft is considered to be the seventeenth NBA draft to have utilized what's 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 the Hoosier Dome), 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. Surprisingly, this year's draft would not have any notable prospects who weren't invited nor fell out of the first round this time around. As such, the following players were invited to attend this year's draft festivities live and in person.
- Yinka Dare – C, George Washington
- Grant Hill – SF, Duke
- Juwon Howard – PF, Michigan
- Eddie Jones – SG, Temple
- Jason Kidd – PG, California
- Donyell Marshall – SF, Connecticut
- Aaron McKie – SG, Temple
- Eric Mobley – PF, Pittsburgh
- Lamond Murray – SF, California
- Wesley Person – SG, Auburn
- Khalid Reeves – PG, Arizona
- Glenn Robinson – SF, Purdue
- Jalen Rose – SG/SF, Michigan
- Clifford Rozier – PF, Louisville
- Sharone Wright – PF/C, Clemson