WNBA Draft

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The WNBA Draft is an annual draft held by the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) through which WNBA teams can select new players from a talent pool of college and professional women's basketball players. The first WNBA draft was held in 1997.

1 Structure
2 Players Selected
3 First Picks
4 Past WNBA Drafts
5 Notable Draft Picks
6 Trivia
7 See also
8 External links
9 References

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Structure

The 1997 WNBA Draft was divided into three parts. The first part was the initial allocation of 16 players into individual teams. Players such as Cynthia Cooper and Michelle Timms were assigned to different teams. The second part was the WNBA Elite draft, which was comprised of professional women's basketball players who had competed in other leagues. The last part would be the 4 rounds of the regular draft.

The next three seasons to follow 1998, 1999 and 2000 would all have expansion drafts. There would not be another expansion draft until the 2006 season.

All seasons before 2002 would carry 4 rounds. Starting with 2003, all drafts would carry 3 rounds.

In 2003 and 2004, there would be Dispersal drafts due to the closing of the Cleveland Rockers, Miami Sol and Portland Fire. The players were reallocated to existing teams.

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Players Selected

There is no restrictions on what part of the world the players come from. There is however clauses held by universities that prevents the players from participating in the WNBA and NCAA simultaneously. Once the player has joined the WNBA, she is eligible to participate overseas in European leagues during the WNBA offseason. So far no U.S highschool player has ever been drafted.

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First Picks

Year	Player	College/Club Team	Drafted by
1997	Dena Head	University of Tennessee	Utah Starzz
1998	Margo Dydek	Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego	Utah Starzz
1999	Chamique Holdsclaw^1,2	University of Tennessee	Washington Mystics
2000	Ann Wauters	Belgium	Cleveland Rockers
2001	Lauren Jackson³	Australian Institute of Sport	Seattle Storm
2002	Sue Bird²	University of Connecticut	Seattle Storm
2003	LaToya Thomas	Mississippi State University	Cleveland Rockers
2004	Diana Taurasi ¹	University of Connecticut	Phoenix Mercury
2005	Janel McCarville	University of Minnesota	Charlotte Sting
2006	Seimone Augustus	Louisiana State University	Minnesota Lynx

Notes:

1: Won the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award.
2: Started the WNBA All-Star Game in her first season.
3: Made the WNBA All-Star Game as a reserve in her first season.

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Past WNBA Drafts

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Notable Draft Picks

1997 - Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson would become the core pieces of the Houston Comets dynasty.
1999 - Taj McWilliams-Franklin is the lowest draft pick to become a WNBA all-star in 3rd round, 32nd pick overall.
2003 - Cheryl Ford (daughter of all-time NBA great Karl Malone) helped the Detroit Shock win a WNBA Championship in her first season.
2004 - Lindsay Whalen picked #4 overall by Connecticut Sun - led the Sun to the WNBA finals two years in a row in her rookie and second year.
2005 - Kristin Haynie - As a member of the Michigan State University's women's team, became the first person to play in the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship game and the WNBA Finals (with the Sacramento Monarchs) in the same calendar year.

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Trivia

Dena Head is the oldest #1 draft pick, having graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1992.
Dena Head is the first player ever drafted in the WNBA.
Lauren Jackson is the youngest #1 draft pick, being drafted at the age of 19.

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