NEW YORK -- The men's basketball team wrote another page into the history book last night by becoming only the second school in history to have two of the first three picks in the NBA Draft.
The Chicago Bulls took Jay Williams with the No. 2 choice and Golden State selected Mike Dunleavy in the third slot in the draft at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. The other former Blue Devil in the draft, Carlos Boozer, was chosen in the second round by Cleveland, with the sixth pick in the round and 35th overall.
"I just look forward to playing," said Williams, who recently finished his classes and, assuming he passes, will graduate at the end of Summer Session I. "The whole draft thing has been crazy, finding out where you may go, where you may not go, who's going to move up in the draft, who's not. I'm just really happy right now to get to go to a great city like Chicago."
Earlier in the night, Yao Ming, a 7-foot-5 center from the Shanghi Sharks in the Chinese basketball league, was the top pick by the Houston Rockets. Ming is the first foreign player selected No. 1.
Since the NBA Lottery determined that the pick belonged to Houston, draft watchers have predicted that Ming would occupy the premier slot.
"This is a new start in my basketball
After Williams and Dunleavy were drafted, Memphis took Drew Gooden at No. 4, while Denver selected Italian Nikoloz Tskitishvili at No. 5.
Cleveland drafted the rights to Dajuan Wagner, New York chose Nene Hilario--a pick that was booed by the hometown crowd--and the Clippers, picking at No. 8, went with Maryland's Chris Wilcox.
Amare Stoudemire going to Phoenix and Caron Bulter heading to Miami rounded out the top-10. New York then traded Hilario, Marcus Camby and Mark Jackson to Denver for Antonio McDyess, the No. 25 pick, Frank Williams and a 2003 2nd-round selection.
It was the first time since 1969 and only the second time in history that two players from the same team were chosen in the top three. The only other time it occurred was when UCLA's then Lew Alcindor, now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, went first and Lucius Allen was chosen third.
"To have that honor of two guys picked in the top three says a lot for Duke, Coach K and our program," Dunleavy said. "I can tell you when we came in as freshman
Boozer's selection by the Cavs marked the second time in three years that Duke had at least three players selected. In the 1999 draft, Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, Corey Maggette and William Avery were all first-round selections.
The Blue Devils had only one selection in the previous two drafts, with Chris Carrawell going in 2000 and Shane Battier in 2001.
However, despite being picked lower than his teammates, the Juneau, Alaska, native said he was not disappointed.
"There are a lot of teams that passed on me and I think that's unfortunate," said Boozer, who was not attending the draft, said in a statement. "I would have loved to have gone in the first round, but I'm excited about going to Cleveland and I'm anxious to start playing."
The players drafted now have a few days off before they will begin negotiating contracts and getting acquainted with their new teams.
"I had a lot of butterflies going through me," Dunleavy said. "When everybody said they were going to take me I felt pretty good about it, but once you get in that green room and the commissioner comes up, I was a little nervous about it. But once he finally said my name, it was a dream come true."
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