1968 ABA draft

Elvin Hayes from the University of Houston was selected first overall by the Houston Mavericks, a team nearby Hayes' own university location. In addition to him, sometime during the first round after the Mavericks' selection, Wes Unseld from the University of Louisville was selected in the first round as well by the Kentucky Colonels, a team that was also nearby Unseld's own university location. Despite the favorable results in mind, both Hayes and Unseld would decline playing in the ABA to join up with the NBA instead, with Unseld later winning both the Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in his rookie season for the NBA akin to that of Wilt Chamberlain. Both Hayes and Unseld were also named members of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and NBA 75th Anniversary Team, as well as won the 1978 NBA Finals championship as teammates while with the Washington Bullets. Another Hall of Fame player, Jo Jo White, was selected during the first five rounds of the draft by the Dallas Chaparrals while playing in what would have been his junior year at the University of Kansas, but unlike Hayes and Unseld, he opted to stay in Kansas for another year before being drafted by the Boston Celtics in the following year's NBA draft, winning two NBA Finals championships while with Boston throughout his tenure. One more Hall of Famer, Rick Adelman, was selected during the last later rounds of the ABA draft by the Los Angeles Stars following their name change from the Anaheim Amigos months prior, with Adelman being a successful all-time coach following his playing career in the NBA with a coaching career in the NBA lasting from 1989 until 2014, with his most successful stints coming from his time with the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings.

Out of 92 overall ABA All-Stars, there were ten players eligible to be selected in this year's draft that made it to at least one ABA All-Star Game (notably later selection Ron Boone, Warren Jabali, Glen Combs, 1967 ABA draft pick Rich Jones, Mike Lewis, Jim Eakins, Mervin Jackson, Julius Keye, and Gene Moore), with Chuck Williams also being a two-time ABA All-Star despite not being drafted by the ABA this year following a two-year break from playing professional basketball himself after being drafted late in the 1968 NBA draft. In addition to them, this year's draft marked the only time in ABA history where a player was able to make to an All-ABA Team without making it to a single ABA All-Star Game, with Larry Cannon being able to make it to the All-ABA Second Team in 1971 due to his incredible production in his second season while not being able to be considered productive enough to be considered an ABA All-Star for at least that particular year, never mind any other season of play. In addition to Cannon's sole appearance, Boone would get two All-ABA Team appearances while Jabali got an All-ABA First Team spot in 1973, as well as won both the league's Rookie of the Year Award and the Playoffs MVP Award in 1969 for his performance with the Oakland Oaks that season, and was named the ABA's All-Star MVP in 1973. Julius Keye would also be named a two-time member of the ABA's All-Defensive Team during the first two seasons that designation was created; he was one of seven people to be named a member of the All-Defensive Team for the ABA twice, the second-most times it happened in the league's existence. Interestingly, one selection from this year's draft, (likely) fifth round pick Mike Warren of UCLA by the Anaheim Amigos, decided to forgo playing professional basketball entirely, opting to instead spend his entire professional career as an actor. Finally, one player that joined the Los Angeles Stars after this draft concluded, Elvin Ivory, joined the Stars despite going undrafted this year due to him being a sophomore from the University of Southwestern Louisiana at the time of this year's draft; he would be the first sophomore player to join the ABA or any professional basketball league before changes would be made toward both the ABA and NBA in the following years to come.^[4]

For the second year in a row, no generally known record of which player was taken in which draft round outside of Elvin Hayes as the No. 1 pick by the Houston Mavericks (alongside the general notation of what the first round was for every team here); as well the first two-round selections of the Anaheim Amigos (later renamed the Los Angeles Stars during the draft), Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels, Minnesota Muskies, and Oakland Oaks (which included a first-round pick acquired by the New Orleans Buccaneers by a 1967 ABA draft day trade); the first five-round selections by the Denver Rockets and defending champion Pittsburgh Pipers; the fifth-round pick of the Minnesota Muskies; the seventh-round pick of the Dallas Chaparrals; and the additional round selections made by the Dallas Chaparrals, Los Angeles Stars, and New Jersey Americans (one made by Dallas and New Jersey each, while two made by the Stars^[5]) was publicly kept throughout the ABA's second season of draft history as of 2025. The reason why this was the case related to the secret nature of their draft period during this year combined with the various behind-the-scenes strategies ABA teams employed at the time to get key players of interest to try and sign up with them over other teams instead, especially out in the rivaling NBA. However, if one were to use the records from the inaugural ABA season as a guide for draft ordering for at least most of the rounds in this draft, then the order from the worst to best ABA teams in this draft would be from this following order: Oakland Oaks, Anaheim Amigos/Los Angeles Stars, Houston Mavericks, New Jersey Americans (via disqualification tiebreaker), Kentucky Colonels (via playoff tiebreaker won through disqualification), Indiana Pacers, Denver Rockets, Dallas Chaparrals, New Orleans Buccaneers, Minnesota Muskies, and Pittsburgh Pipers. During the months between March and April, the Anaheim Amigos moved from Anaheim, California to nearby Los Angeles to become the Los Angeles Stars, with the Stars retaining the Amigos' team history and assets, including draft picks, in the process of it all.^[6] After this draft period concluded in May, however, the New Jersey Americans would return to an original plan of theirs with playing up in New York City by becoming the New York Nets for the rest of their ABA tenure (partially because the team owners didn't like the fans shortening the name to "Amerks" due to it sounding Communist to them and partially because the team wanted to continue the younger New York team tradition of having a short word ending with the "ets" suffix being the new franchise name similar to the Mets in the MLB and Jets of the then-AFL later turned NFL) following a failed permanent home move to New Jersey in relation to a forced disqualification for a playoff qualifying match at home against the Kentucky Colonels (though ironically, it'd have the team play in the same arena that initially disqualified them from playoff qualification last season on a more permanent basis (at least at first), but with new floor boards in place to avoid a repeat scenario like their last game of that inaugural season from occurring ever again),^[7] while the Minnesota Muskies would move down to Miami, Florida to become the Miami Floridians and the defending champion Pittsburgh Pipers would move up to Minnesota to become the Minnesota Pipers (presumably in an attempt to have a home team nearby the ABA's headquarters^[2]).^[8][9] Any players that have a ‡ next to their names during this draft period mean that these players were selected for the ABA All-Time Team in 1997.

• 1968 ABA Draft on databaseBasketball.com^[usurped]
• 1968–69 ABA Rookies