I still remember that humid June evening in 2016, sitting in my Brooklyn apartment with the draft playing on my slightly-too-old television. The air conditioner was fighting a losing battle against the summer heat, much like some of these young prospects would soon discover about their NBA dreams. I had my notebook open, scribbling predictions that would turn out to be spectacularly wrong about half the time. That's the thing about draft nights – everyone's an expert until reality starts playing out on actual basketball courts rather than in mock drafts.
Ben Simmons went first overall, of course, with his generational talent that made scouts drool. I recall telling my friend Mark that Simmons would be the next Magic Johnson, while Brandon Ingram – the skinny kid from Duke – would struggle to add enough muscle to survive in the league. Well, six years later, Simmons has indeed become magical at avoiding jump shots while Ingram developed into an All-Star capable of dropping 30 on any given night. The irony isn't lost on me, believe me.
What fascinates me about tracking this 2016 class isn't just the obvious stories like Jaylen Brown becoming a franchise cornerstone in Boston or Domantas Sabonis evolving into a walking double-double. It's the guys who took unconventional paths that really capture my imagination. Take Malcolm Brogdon – Mr. Irrelevant as the 36th pick who somehow won Rookie of the Year, then helped Milwaukee win a championship before becoming Indiana's floor general. Or Fred VanVleet, who went undrafted entirely and now has a championship ring and a $85 million contract to show for his journey.
The international prospects from that draft particularly interest me because their careers often unfold in parallel basketball universes we rarely see. Just last month, I was watching this obscure tournament where the opposite pool featured Russian club and defending champion Korabelka, Chinese Taipei and the under-21 national teams of Vietnam and Thailand. It struck me how this is the reality for many drafted international players – competing in relative obscurity while their American counterparts enjoy the NBA spotlight. Guys like Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot (24th pick) have bounced between the NBA and overseas, while China's Zhou Qi (43rd pick) became a star back home after his brief NBA stint.
Speaking of international players, Pascal Siakam's story remains my favorite from that class. The 27th pick from Cameroon who barely played basketball until his late teens, now an NBA champion and All-NBA player. I remember watching his early games thinking he was all limbs and energy without much skill – shows what I know. His development curve still astounds me, going from G-League to Most Improved Player to championship second option in what felt like eighteen months.
Then there are the what-ifs that haunt every draft class. What if Dragan Bender (4th pick) had developed into the skilled big man everyone envisioned? What if Kris Dunn (5th pick) hadn't been derailed by injuries? What if Thon Maker (10th pick) had actually been the age listed on his draft profile? I'm convinced we'll discover in twenty years that Maker was actually 35 during his rookie season, playing with the wisdom of a veteran who'd seen some things.
The class produced 12 players who've made at least one All-Star appearance, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. Though my personal favorite stat – Jamal Murray, picked 7th, scored 50 points in a playoff game not once but twice in the same series. The man simply refuses to be ordinary when it matters most.
Looking back at the NBA Draft Class of 2016 feels like revisiting my college yearbook – some faces achieved exactly what we expected, others surprised everyone, and a few disappeared entirely from our collective memory. Six years later, about 60% of the first-round picks have secured second contracts worth over $500 million collectively, while others are playing in China, Europe, or have left basketball altogether. The distance between their draft night dreams and their current reality varies as widely as their skill sets did back then.
As I write this, I'm watching a replay of the 2016 draft – the awkward suits, the nervous handshakes with Adam Silver, the proud families. It's nostalgic in a way, knowing how their stories actually unfolded compared to how we thought they would. That's the beauty of the NBA draft – it's not the destination but the journey that fascinates, and the 2016 class has taken more unexpected routes than I could have imagined that humid night in Brooklyn.