Bradley Knick ‘Draftee’

May 6, 1965 - Bill Bradley, the nation’s finest college basketball player last season, was the No. 1 draft choice of the NBA today. 

The New York Knicks protected themselves by selecting the Princeton star, despite the fact that he may never play professional basketball. The Olympic athlete is headed for two years of study at Oxford University under a Rhodes Scholarship.

Bill Buntin of Michigan went to the Detroit Pistons, and Gail Goodrich of UCLA went to the Los Angeles Lakers in the other major territorial selections, as the NBA held its annual draft meeting at New York’s Plaza Hotel.

Ned Irish, Knicks president, said: “Bradley may or may not play when he returns. But in any case, we had to make sure that if he plays, he plays for us. We had no choice.”Irish indicated he had offered Bradley more than $50,000 for the first season he played professional basketball.

Bradley plans to attend law school after Oxford. The Knicks had hoped to get a two-year deferment on picking him, but other NBA clubs indicated they wouldn’t permit that.

The Knicks also selected Dave Stallworth, a 6-7 player from Wichita.

Other first-round choices were Fred Hetzel of Davidson and Rick Barry of Miami, San Francisco Warriors; Jerry Sloan of Evansville, Baltimore Bullets; Bill Cunningham of North Carolina, Philadelphia 76ers; Jim Washington of Villanova, St. Louis Hawks; Nate Bowman of Wichita, Cincinnati Royals; and Ollie Johnson of the University of San Francisco, Boston Celtics. 

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