On June 8, 1947, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) conducted its first draft, a milestone in the professionalization of American basketball that is conventionally counted as the first draft in the lineage of the modern NBA. The BAA, founded in 1946 and merging with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949 to form the National Basketball Association (NBA), organized the 1947 draft to allocate negotiating rights to graduating college and amateur players among its member clubs. The 1947 draft took place following the BAA’s second season. Teams selected players in a series of rounds; historical records show Frank Kudelka was the first overall pick, selected by the Providence Steamrollers. Draft procedures at the time were far less formalized and less widely reported than later drafts: scouting staffs were small, travel and communication constraints limited nationwide evaluation, and many college standouts opted to play in other professional leagues or for local teams closer to home. The draft therefore functioned more as an initial allocation of rights than as a definitive pipeline from college to pro ranks. The early draft format reflected the BAA’s modest resources and evolving rules. Teams negotiated directly with draftees rather than relying on standardized rookie contracts. Some drafted players never played in the BAA/NBA, choosing instead to join the NBL, play semiprofessionally, or retire. Nevertheless, the 1947 draft established a mechanism for distributing talent fairly among franchises and reduced direct bidding wars for players—a practical necessity for a young league seeking financial stability and competitive balance. Historically, the 1947 draft’s significance lies less in the future stardom of its selections and more in institutionalizing a roster-building process that later became central to the NBA’s identity. Over subsequent decades, the draft evolved into a major annual event featuring nationwide scouting, lotteries, extensive media coverage, and detailed rookie contracts. But its roots in 1947 illustrate how basic administrative innovations—allocating territorial and draft rights—helped professional basketball transition from loosely arranged regional competitions to a unified national league. Contemporary accounts and later histories note that documentation from the earliest BAA drafts can be incomplete or inconsistent. League records, newspaper reports, and team archives sometimes diverge on specific selections and procedural details. Scholars and statisticians who compile early professional basketball histories therefore treat some particulars with caution; the overall narrative that the BAA held its first draft on June 8, 1947, and that it established a precedent for the NBA draft is well supported. In short, the 1947 draft was a pragmatic administrative step by a fledgling professional league. It laid groundwork for the draft’s transformation into a cornerstone of the modern NBA’s competitive and commercial structure, even as its immediate impact on rosters and careers was uneven in an era of competing leagues and limited scouting resources.