History of Arkansas basketball lottery picks in NBA Draft

Arkansas basketball has a deep history of putting players in the NBA Draft with 41 Razorbacks hearing their names called in the draft since 1950.

Six of those 41 have been lottery picks — players drafted with one of the first 14 picks in the draft — and Arkansas will look for its second lottery pick in the last three years during Thursday’s draft.

Since the lottery was introduced in 1985, there have been 518 lottery selections. Some have become all-time greats and others have not seen much success.

At least one of Arkansas’ McDonald’s All-American freshmen is set to be a lottery pick as point guard Anthony Black is projected to be a top-10 selection. Fellow freshman Nick Smith Jr. could sneak into the lottery, though he’s commonly being projected outside of the lottery as of late.

Here’s a look at Arkansas’ six lottery picks ahead of Thursday’s draft:

Kleine played 15 seasons in the league after being drafted by the Kings. His best season came in his third year with Sacramento, when Kleine played in all 82 of the Kings’ games and was one of three players on the team to start 60 or more games that season. He averaged nearly 10 points per game that season.

During his career, Kleine played for seven teams — the Kings, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, New Jersey Nets, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and the Chicago Bulls. In his one season with the Bulls, Kleine won an NBA title and he played in 46 games that season.

Day also played 15 seasons of professional basketball but was in and out of the NBA throughout his career. He started his career with the Bucks but also played for the Celtics, Suns, Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves.

When Day wasn’t in the NBA, he played in professional leagues in Italy, Cyprus, Argentina, and other American leagues, such as the American Basketball Association (ABA), NBA D-League and the Continental Basketball…