ThePhilippine Basketball Association draft is an annualPhilippine Basketball Association (PBA) event dating back to1985 in which the league's teams candraft eligible prospects seeking to join the league. Each team has one draft pick per round to select players and the draft lasts for as many rounds as needed until all teams have passed their selection.

The draft usually takes place between October and December, during the league's off-season. During the early to mid-2020s, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic affecting the league's schedule, the draft is scheduled towards the earlier or middle part of the year. No player may sign with any PBA team until he has been eligible for at least one draft.

All players have to benatural-bornFilipinos. Persons who chose Philippine citizenship by the age of maturity are considered as natural-born citizens.

The following are the eligibility requirements for local players:

• Entrants of at least 22 years of age on the day of the draft must be at least four years removed from high school or have played one year of college basketball;
• Entrants between 19 and 21 years of age must have had at least two years of college education;
• All entrants must be at least 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) in height.

Eligibility requirements for Filipino-descended foreigner entrants (Filipino-foreigners) are similar to the locals but with some additions:

• All Filipino-foreigner entrants must be a holder of aPhilippine passport.
• All Filipino-foreigner entrants must have previously played professional basketball elsewhere and is not under contract with other teams.

Players who apply for the draft on the fourth or fifth year of eligibility will instead be assigned to a lottery separate from the draft proper.^[1] Foreign players, or imports, don't enter the PBA draft. Instead, they are signed directly by teams and only play in conferences which allow imports, such as theCommissioner's Cup andGovernors' Cup. Naturalized citizens are classified as imports.

Beginning with thePBA season 51 draft in 2027, players who have existing contracts with teams from other leagues cannot declare for the draft. The new condition came as more players were drafted from theMaharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, whose season runs from March to December, and were required to fulfill their contracts with MPBL teams before joining the PBA.^[2]

From 2015 to 2019, all entrants were also required to play at least seven games across twoPBA D-League conferences. Anyone who played for thePhilippines men's national basketball team was exempted from this rule and was automatically eligible for the draft.^[3] Starting with thePBA season 46 draft in 2021, this requirement was abolished for all players.^[4]

Until the season 46 draft, all Filipino-foreigner entrants must have had documents from theDepartment of Justice and theBureau of Immigration proving their Philippine citizenship. This clause was repealed later in November that year, abolishing the rule as of thePBA season 47 draft in 2022.^[5]

The draft order is determined by the teams' final rankings within each conference from the previous season, with rankings from thePhilippine Cup havingheavier weight than the import-laden Commissioner's and Governors' Cups. Teams pick in ascending order of the weighted cumulative rankings, with the team with the lowest cumulative ranking picking first while the team with the highest cumulative ranking picking last.^[6] The draft order can also change if teams choose to trade their first- or second-round picks to another team.

From1985 to2004 and since2011, the PBA draft consists of a minimum of two rounds where teams are required to pick. The draft can go past the second round, but from the third round onwards, teams have the option to pass. Doing so opts the team out for the remainder of the draft. Once all teams have passed, the draft is finished and all undrafted players becomefree agents.

From2005 to2010, the association limited the draft to only two rounds with no selections beyong that point. This restriction was attributed to an agreement between the PBA and thePhilippine Basketball League (PBL), which also included a development fee to the PBL team from which the player was drafted. This was removed in 2011 as the PBL had folded, and amateur players played in thePBA D-League instead.^[7]

Occasionally, Gilas Pilipinas players may be placed in a special Gilas draft. In 2016, the Gilas draft was held as the first round of that year's draft, but in all drafts since that have the Gilas draft, it is held as a separate round from the draft proper.

Before 2015, a draft lottery determined which team gets the first overall draft pick. The lottery involved the two teams with the worst cumulative rankings from the previous season. The team with the worst cumulative ranking had a 2 in 3 chance of clinching the first pick while the second-worst only got a 1 in 3 chance.^[8] The lottery was usually held prior to the finals of the final conference of the season. It was abandoned after the controversies that aroused during the lottery for the first pick of the 2014 draft.^[9][10]

There have been three expansion drafts in the league's history. The first was in1990, in which the new teamsPepsi Hotshots and thePop Cola Sizzlers selected up to six players from the expansion pool, which is made up of three players from each of the six existing franchises. The second was in2000, when newcomersBatang Red Bull Energizers selected players from the draft.

An expansion draft for new teamsBlackwater Elite andKia Sorento was held on July 18, 2014, so that both team can form its rosters for the2014–15 season. The 10 existing PBA franchises protected up to 12 players in their roster.^[11][12] Two time MVPDanny Ildefonso of theMeralco Bolts was selected as the first pick of the expansion draft by Blackwater, followed byReil Cervantes ofBarako Bull by Kia.^[13]

If a new franchise also has an existing franchise from an amateur league (from thePhilippine Basketball League before 2011 and thePBA D-League afterwards), the franchise, upon approval from the PBA's Board of Governors, may be given an incentive of selecting players from their amateur team to be directly elevated to their PBA team. This was last given to theWelcoat Dragons, who elevated three players from their PBL team.

Flags indicate the country where the player competed as college student-athletes; all players are Filipinos until proven otherwise, like Sonny Alvarado's case where he fled the country as his citizenship was being questioned.

Draft	Player	Selected by	College	Draft venue	PBA rookie statistics			Ref.
					PPG	RPG	APG
1985	Sonny Cabatu	Shell	PSBA[b]		5.2	4.83	0.53	[14]
1986	Rey Cuenco^	Alaska	Arellano		5.4	3.59	0.62	[15]
1987	Allan Caidic*	Great Taste	UE		16.6	3.27	1.9	[16]
1988	Jack Tanuan	Purefoods	FEU		2.6	2.24	0.52	[17]
1989	Benjie Paras*[c]	Shell	UP Diliman		25.8	12.98	2.05	[18]
1990	Peter Jao	Great Taste	USJ-R	The Ultra,Pasig	7.8	2.13	1.25
1991	Alejandro Araneta	Alaska	Ateneo		5.2	3.89	0.49	[19]
1992	Vergel Meneses^	Presto-Tivoli	JRC		17.69	2.15	1.59	[20]
1993	Jun Limpot^	Sta. Lucia	De La Salle	The Peninsula,Makati	20.6	8.09	2.27	[21]
1994	Noli Locsin^	Tondeña	De La Salle[d]	Manila Hyatt Hotel, Manila	18.5	8.78	2.9	[22]
1995	Dennis Espino^	Sta. Lucia	UST	New World Makati Hotel, Makati	14.7	6.34	1.23	[23]
1996	Marlou Aquino^	Ginebra	Adamson		17.9	8.39	1.82	[24]
1997	Andy Seigle	Mobiline	New Orleans	Glorietta Activity Center, Makati	13.5	9.93	2.29	[25]
1998	Danny Ildefonso^	San Miguel	NU		11.6	5.04	1.58	[26]
1999	Sonny Alvarado^	Tanduay	Texas		22.9	13.13	3.9
2000	Paolo Mendoza	Sta. Lucia	UP Diliman		8.0	2.45	2.13	[27]
2001	Willie Miller^	Red Bull	Letran		7.6	2.76	2.29	[28]
2002	Yancy De Ocampo^	FedEx	St. Francis		7.0	5.58	0.36	[29]
2003	Mike Cortez^	Alaska	De La Salle		11.4	4.41	4.2	[30]
2004	Rich Alvarez	Shell	Ateneo		8.8	6.39	2.4	[31]
2005	Jay Washington^	Air21	Eckerd	Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall,Cainta	5.3	3.66	0.94	[32]
2006	Kelly Williams^	Sta. Lucia	Oakland	Market! Market!,Taguig	17.3	9.56	1.69	[33]
2007	Joe Devance^	Welcoat	UTEP		13.6	6.5	1.1	[34]
2008	Gabe Norwood^	Rain or Shine	George Mason		11.5	7.95	3.27	[35]
2009	Japeth Aguilar^	Burger King	Western Kentucky[e]		10.0	9.0	2.0	[36]
2010	Nonoy Baclao	Air21	Ateneo		3.4	5.2	1.1	[37]
2011	JVee Casio	Powerade	De La Salle	Robinsons Place Manila, Manila	11.9	3.1	6.4	[38]
2012	June Mar Fajardo^	Petron	UC		12.1	9.3	0.6	[39]
2013	Greg Slaughter^	Barangay Ginebra	Ateneo[f]		14.6	10.1	1.5	[40]
2014	Stanley Pringle^	GlobalPort	Penn State		14.0	5.9	3.8	[41]
2015	Moala Tautuaa	Talk 'N Text	Chadron State		8.93	4.1	1.24	[42]
2016	No first overall pick[g]				—N/a	—N/a	—N/a
2017	Christian Standhardinger	San Miguel	Hawaii		16.59	9.26	1.56	[43]
2018	CJ Perez^	Columbian	Lyceum		20.8	7.39	3.36	[44]
2019	Roosevelt Adams[h]	Columbian	College of Idaho		10.33	8.11	0.89	[45]
2021(S46)[i]	Joshua Munzon	Terrafirma[j]	Cal State Los Angeles	TV5 Media Center, Mandaluyong(draft held via conference call)	19.0	4.33	3.17	[46]
2022(S47)	Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser	Blackwater	UC Riverside	Robinsons Place Manila, Manila	12.7	5.7	1.0	[47]
2023(S48)	Stephen Holt	Terrafirma	Saint Mary's	Market! Market!, Taguig	17.0	6.9	5.5	[48]
2024(S49)	Justine Baltazar	Converge	De La Salle	Glorietta Activity Center, Makati	12.2	10.1	2.2
2025(S50)	Geo Chiu	Terrafirma	Ateneo	SM Mall of Asia,Pasay

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