1986 NBA draft
basketball player selection
The 1986 NBA draft was held on June 17, 1986.
Overview and aftermath
This draft holds the record for the most players chosen who later debuted in the NBA, with 66.
Drug and health issues involving drafted players
Various drug-related problems plagued players in the 1986 NBA draft. Most notable was the death of the #2 overall pick, Len Bias. The highly touted forward died from an overdose of cocaine
less than two days after being selected by the defending champion Boston Celtics. Other problems involving drugs hampered the careers of centers Chris Washburn, Roy Tarpley, and William Bedford.
Successful second-round players
While a number of first-round selections were unable to make an impact in the league, the 1986 draft featured a number of talented second-round selections who made an impact on the league. Dennis Rodman became one of the leading defenders and rebounders in NBA history and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Mark Price, Kevin Duckworth, and Jeff Hornacek were all multiple NBA All-Stars. Johnny Newman, Nate McMillan, and David Wingate had long, productive careers as role players.
The public source identifies “1986 NBA draft” as basketball player selection. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around draft, basketball and player.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1810519. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1986.
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This entry incorporates text from “1986 NBA draft” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.