The Barclays Center in Brooklyn will see the future stars of basketball parade tonight. The NBA draft, a gateway for young players dreaming of triumphing in the American league, is the most anticipated event of this end of the season. It takes place every year after the end of the playoffs (the final phase in the playoffs). Our French Victor Wembanyama, who, at 2.21m tall and 19 years old, should be the number one choice of franchises. How does this system work? We explain to you.
The first stage of the draft takes place a few weeks before D-Day. To find out in which order the teams will choose, a draw is made. It’s called the lottery. Teams that performed less well in the previous season preferentially choose the best players. This year, the San Antonio Spurs, second to last last season, will be the first to announce their picks, followed by the Charlotte Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers.
Once the order is defined, it’s time for the ceremony. Adam Silver, the boss of the NBA, hosts the evening. Every five minutes, it announces the name of the player each team has selected. This gives other franchises time to adjust before they have a say. A total of 30 teams will be able to select 2 players during the evening.
To hope to see your name in the list of selectable players, you must at least be in the year of your 19 years, have left high school for a year and validate your application 60 days before the draft. We regularly find the best players of the G League, the league of American universities, but also the young stars of foreign championships. In total, the ceremony will have 84 player proposals, but there will only be 58 lucky winners who will be able to join the NBA.
The draft aims to strengthen the teams in difficulty last season. This system makes it possible to reduce the gaps with the clubs that have triumphed. Remember that the NBA is a closed league, like most North American sports leagues, that is to say that the promotion or relegation system does not exist. This operation makes it possible to maintain the dynamism of the league.