1982 NBA draft

The 1982 NBA draft took place on June 29, 1982, at the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The #1 selection from this year's draft, future Hall of Fame small forward James Worthy, was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers despite them winning the NBA championship the previous season. Their #1 selection in 1982 came from a 1979 trade the team had made with the Cleveland Cavaliers, in which Cleveland had traded their first-round pick for journeyman power forward Don Ford. Worthy would help turn LA into the Showtime Lakers dynasty of the 1980s. Meanwhile, what proved to be reckless trades of first round draft picks by then Cavaliers' owner Ted Stepien led to the NBA creating the "Ted Stepien Rule" forbidding teams from trading first round draft picks in back-to-back years unless they had a different first-round pick that they kept during that time.