College Basketball Teams with Most Players in NBA Today
Kentucky and Duke have been dominating college basketball—especially recruiting—for the past decade and boast the most alumni in the NBA as a result.
Between the draft and the beginning of free agency, NBA rosters are both as full and as fluid as they can be. By the time the 2016-17 season begins, many of the players currently listed on NBA rosters will either be sent to the D-League or out of North America altogether, pursuing career opportunities internationally. Others will simply decide enough is enough and retire.
But as things currently stand, there are eight college basketball programs with at least 10 players listed on NBA rosters, as well as a pair of titans with more than 20.
For the coaches at the top of the list, this is one heck of a bragging right on the recruiting trail. It probably goes something like this: "Sure, you could take your chances at a school where you might get a little more playing time in college, but we will get you playing time in the NBA. Just look at our track record!"
Schools on the following slides are listed in ascending order of players currently in the NBA, and the players on each slide appear in descending order of listed salary for the 2015-16 season.
Players are considered to be in the NBA if they appeared on ESPN.com's player search as of June 26.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 10
Connecticut Huskies
Rudy Gay, Kemba Walker, Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb, Caron Butler, Shabazz Napier, Charlie Villanueva, Daniel Hamilton
Washington Huskies
Isaiah Thomas, Spencer Hawes, Terrence Ross, Quincy Pondexter, C.J. Wilcox, Justin Holiday, Marquese Chriss, Dejounte Murray
Michigan State Spartans
Draymond Green, Zach Randolph, Alan Anderson, Adreian Payne, Gary Harris, Branden Dawson, Denzel Valentine, Deyonta Davis
Michigan Wolverines
Jamal Crawford, Nik Stauskas, Trey Burke, Mitch McGary, Tim Hardaway Jr., Glenn Robinson III, Caris LeVert
LSU Tigers
Brandon Bass, Jarell Martin, Jordan Mickey, Garrett Temple, Johnny O'Bryant III, Marcus Thornton, Ben Simmons
USC Trojans
Nikola Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan, Taj Gibson, O.J. Mayo, Nick Young, Dewayne Dedmon, Alex Stepheson
9. Texas Longhorns
2 of 10
Players (9): Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tristan Thompson, Avery Bradley, Cory Joseph, P.J. Tucker, D.J. Augustin, Myles Turner, Jordan Hamilton
Texas is a weird place to start the list. Though the Longhorns only have nine players in the NBA, they have more players (two) ranked in the top 10 of the highest-paid players in 2015-16 than the next eight teams combined (one)—as well as a third who ranks No. 33 on that list.
They may not send a ton of guys to the next level, but the ones who do get there have a solid track record.
The most popular of the bunch is, of course, Kevin Durant ($20.159 million). The No. 2 pick in the 2007 NBA draft has been to seven consecutive All-Star games and already has four scoring titles to his name. But the No. 2 pick in the prior year's draft isn't all that far behind KD. LaMarcus Aldridge ($19.689 million) has been selected to five straight All-Star games of his own.
Then there's rebounding connoisseur Tristan Thompson, who inked a five-year, $82 million contract this past October. By the end of it, he'll be making more than $18.5 million per year. Not a bad payday for the No. 4 pick in the 2011 draft.
But everyone drafted outside the top five has been decidedly less fortuitous, and Myles Turner is the only Longhorn that has been drafted in the past half decade. Perhaps Texas will fare better once the Shaka Smart era takes root.
7. (tie) Syracuse Orange
3 of 10
Players (10): Carmelo Anthony, Dion Waiters, Michael Carter-Williams, Tyler Ennis, Chris McCullough, Wesley Johnson, Rakeem Christmas, Jerami Grant, Michael Gbinije, Malachi Richardson
Syracuse has the highest-paid former college basketball player in the NBA and a bunch of guys who barely made half of what Carmelo Anthony earned in 2015-16.
At a combined total of $13.293 million, Dion Waiters, Tyler Ennis and company can't hold a candle to Anthony's $22.875 million. Regardless of the size of their bank accounts, each player counts for one in this exercise.
That doesn't necessarily mean the Orange are making a big impact on the NBA, though. In fact, while the Orange do have 10 active players and one of the richest players in the NBA, the past decade has been a challenge.
A total of 16 Syracuse players have made their NBA debuts since the beginning of the 2007-08 season, but more than half of those players failed to appear in so much as 25 career games. Their list of players who have actually amounted to something (Michael Carter-Williams, Wesley Johnson, Jerami Grant and Waiters) is almost as long as the list of first-round picks who lasted fewer than five years in the league (Donte Greene, Jonny Flynn and Fab Melo).
With any luck, Malachi Richardson and Michael Gbinije will be the ones to start changing that narrative for the better.
7. (tie) Florida Gators
4 of 10
Players (10): Chandler Parsons, Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Bradley Beal, Marreese Speights, Udonis Haslem, David Lee, Matt Bonner, Mike Miller
A far cry from Syracuse, Florida's alumni have been more hit than miss in the NBA. The Gators don't send quite as many players to the next level as the Orange do, but the Gators who do get there stick around longer—beginning with Mike Miller, who just finished his 16th season in the Association and has nearly $100 million in career earnings.
The primary players for Florida's back-to-back national champions have had a nice run as well, as Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer earned a combined $33.6 million for their ninth seasons in the NBA. Taurean Green and Chris Richard haven't been nearly as lucky, appearing in a combined total of just 87 games, but the 2006 national champions have as many active NBA players as the 2011 national champions (Connecticut).
Since 2008, though, things haven't been so great for the Gators. Bradley Beal—albeit the No. 3 overall selection in 2012—is their only first-round draft pick of the past eight years, and they haven't had a single player drafted since 2013. Aside from Beal, Chandler Parsons has been the only Florida player to begin his NBA career after Marreese Speights and legitimately contribute.
6. Arizona Wildcats
5 of 10
Players (13): Andre Iguodala, Channing Frye, Aaron Gordon, Jordan Hill, Derrick Williams, Jerryd Bayless, Stanley Johnson, Solomon Hill, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Jason Terry, Richard Jefferson, T.J. McConnell, Chase Budinger
Arizona doesn't have anywhere near the deep-rooted track record of some of these teams—prior to reaching the Final Four in 1988, the Wildcats had precisely two NCAA tournament victories in school history—but U of A has become a serious pipeline to the NBA over the past three decades.
With one of the best recruiters in the business as a head coach for the past seven years (Sean Miller), the Wildcats could be a candidate to jump into the top three on this list in the next few years—even with Jason Terry, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye and Andre Iguodala nearing the finish line of their careers.
The Wildcats were shut out of this year's draft, but they put two players into the NBA in each of the prior three years and should be headed for a big haul in 2017 between Allonzo Trier, Ray Smith and the third-best recruiting class in the nation (for the third straight year), according to 247Sports.
It sure would be nice to see a Wildcat make a big splash in the pros for a change, though. Of the 16 players Arizona has sent to the NBA in the past 11 years, Derrick Williams (9.3 PPG) has the highest career scoring average, and the No. 2 pick in the 2011 draft hasn't even been able to secure a starting job with the sub-.500 Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings or New York Knicks over the past three years.
5. UCLA Bruins
6 of 10
Players (15): Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Jrue Holiday, Trevor Ariza, Arron Afflalo, Darren Collison, Matt Barnes, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, Jordan Adams, Kyle Anderson, Kevon Looney, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Norman Powell, Jordan Farmar
UCLA has more national championships than any other school, but the Bruins only rank fifth in terms of active players in the NBA.
At least they have produced some serious studs.
One of the great mysteries in the history of college basketball is how UCLA failed to win a national championship in 2008 with a core of Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Darren Collison.
Collison has never been an All-Star, but he is a well-paid and effective point guard. Love is a three-time All-Star who has come under fire for "only" averaging 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in his two years with Cleveland. Westbrook is one of the best players in the game today, well on his way to a spot in the top five of the NBA's all-time leaderboard for career triple-doubles.
In addition to those guys who have been excelling in the pros for nearly a decade, the Bruins have a strong batch of both recent and soon-to-be additions, headlined by Shabazz Muhammad (drafted in 2013), Zach LaVine (2014), Kevon Looney (2015) and Lonzo Ball and T.J. Leaf (presumably 2017).
Now if only they could turn all that talent into some success at the college level. In the past eight years, UCLA has produced nearly twice as many draft picks (10) as it has wins in the NCAA tournament (six), including missing the dance three times.
4. North Carolina Tar Heels
7 of 10
Players (18): Danny Green, Marvin Williams, Ed Davis, Brandan Wright, Vince Carter, Raymond Felton, Harrison Barnes, John Henson, Tyler Zeller, Kendall Marshall, Wayne Ellington, Reggie Bullock, P.J. Hairston, Tyler Hansbrough, James Michael McAdoo, Ty Lawson, Brice Johnson, Marcus Paige
In school history, North Carolina has sent 83 players to the NBA. Fourteen of those players averaged at least 13.5 points per game at the next level, but Vince Carter is the only active member of that club—and at 39 years of age, he's deep into the denouement of his career.
In other words, it has been a long time since the Tar Heels produced a star. Carter is the only active UNC alumnus in the NBA to appear in an All-Star game, and even Vinsanity hasn't been in one of those since 2007.
Heck, one of North Carolina's most successful players of the past decade is Ty Lawson, and the 28-year-old was waived by the Houston Rockets in the middle of the 2015-16 season before making even less of an impact (and a drastically reduced payday) with the Indiana Pacers late in the year.
Danny Green is the highest-paid Tar Heel at $10 million annually—and the only one who finished the year with an active salary of more than $7 million—and the three-point specialist averaged a whopping 8.6 points in San Antonio's 10 playoff games.
Harrison Barnes was supposed to be the next big thing coming out of high school, but news that he was selected to play for Team USA at the 2016 Olympics inspired an onslaught of punch lines and puzzled emojis on Twitter. Tyler Hansbrough was one of the greatest college basketball players of all time, but he's barely even touching the floor after seven years in the NBA and has yet to make more than $3.33 million in a given season.
Best of luck, Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige. Unless people expect production North Carolina hasn't had since the 20th century, at least the bar isn't set too high.
3. Kansas Jayhawks
8 of 10
Players (19): Markieff Morris, Andrew Wiggins, Marcus Morris, Joel Embiid, Nick Collison, Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden, Ben McLemore, Kirk Hinrich, Darrell Arthur, Kelly Oubre, Sasha Kaun, Brandon Rush, Cole Aldrich, Thomas Robinson, Jeff Withey, Tarik Black, Cliff Alexander, Cheick Diallo, Mario Chalmers*
Twelve consecutive Big 12 titles is the biggest bragging right for the Jayhawks these days, but 19 players in the NBA isn't a bad second-best claim to fame.
What's interesting about Kansas' alumni, though, is the lack of star power. With Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden and Kirk Hinrich all nearing the end of their long rides in the NBA, Markieff Morris was the highest-paid Jayhawk this past season at just $8 million.
Perhaps more bizarrely, Joel Embiid—who has yet to play a single game in the NBA—was the fourth-highest-paid player of the 19 qualified candidates, making more than $4.6 million to look good on the bench and tweet things that occasionally go viral.
A lot of players follow the path from Lawrence, Kansas, to the NBA, but most of them have settled into roles as the fifth- or sixth-best players on their respective teams.
*Chalmers has made nearly $22 million in the NBA over the past eight years, but the Grizzlies waived him in March after he suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon. Thus, he's technically not part of the NBA, even though we expect to see him in the Association again at some point.
2. Duke Blue Devils
9 of 10
Players (21): Kyrie Irving, Luol Deng, J.J. Redick, Gerald Henderson, Josh McRoberts, Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, Mike Dunleavy, Kyle Singler, Austin Rivers, Justise Winslow, Miles Plumlee, Ryan Kelly, Lance Thomas, Mason Plumlee, Rodney Hood, Tyus Jones, Seth Curry, Elton Brand, Dahntay Jones, Brandon Ingram
In January 2014, David Axe of Syracuse.com put together a list of the 10 biggest things that people hate about Duke, building hype for the upcoming game between the Orange and the Blue Devils.
He had "lack of NBA success" at No. 5, which has become a popular complaint about Mike Krzyzewski's players since Christian Laettner failed to live up to the hype at the next level. It was a topic some brought up when discussing (and objecting to) the possibility that Brandon Ingram could be taken with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA draft.
First of all, what do the pro careers of guys like Bobby Hurley and Jay Williams have to do with Ingram?
Second, it's far from the truth.
In the past two decades, six Duke players (Grant Hill, Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer, Corey Maggette, Luol Deng and Mike Dunleavy) have scored more than 10,000 career points in the NBA. Moreover, Shane Battier was one of the best defenders in recent memory, and J.J. Redick is one of the most lethal active shooters not named Steph Curry. And Kyrie Irving—sure, he only played 11 games at Duke, but he still counts—was just the second-best player on the NBA champs.
Big things are expected of Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones and Ingram over the next few years too.
There are plenty of role players that come out of Durham, North Carolina, but if you still think Duke is exclusively sending duds to the pros, it's time to stop living in the 1990s.
1. Kentucky Wildcats
10 of 10
Players (25): DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Brandon Knight, Eric Bledsoe, Rajon Rondo, Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jodie Meeks, Patrick Patterson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Nerlens Noel, Willie Cauley-Stein, Julius Randle, Terrence Jones, Trey Lyles, Devin Booker, James Young, Archie Goodwin, Tayshaun Prince, Aaron Harrison, Nazr Mohammed, Jamal Murray, Tyler Ulis, Skal Labissiere, Enes Kanter*
This is the polar opposite of breaking news, but Kentucky sends a lot of guys to the NBA. Their count of 25 is only going to grow over the next several years while most of the other schools in the top 10 hit a plateau.
Duke, Kansas and North Carolina each have a handful of alumni that should be retiring in the next 12-24 months, so even though they continue to send players to the pros on an annual basis, those new entrants merely replace the departing ones, keeping the status quo without increasing their count.
But of Kentucky's 25 players currently in the NBA, only four (Nazr Mohammed, Tayshaun Prince, Rajon Rondo and Jodie Meeks) began their careers before the start of the 2010-11 season. It will probably be another decade before guys like John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins start hanging up their sneakers, by which time Kentucky ought to have another couple dozen players in the pros.
Granted, not everyone John Calipari sends to draft night has the staying power to last a dozen years—looking at you, Marquis Teague, Daniel Orton and Doron Lamb—but as long as Lexington continues to thrive in the one-and-done culture, it's hardly crazy to think Kentucky will have 50 or more players in the NBA midway through the 2020s.
*Though he was never eligible to play for the Wildcats, ESPN lists his college as Kentucky. Even if we didn't include him, Kentucky would be No. 1 with room to spare.
Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.
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