1966 Expansion Draft

Lore & Background

Chicago had been awarded the expansion team on January 16, 1966. The Bulls were the third NBA franchise to play in Chicago, following the Chicago Stags, which folded in 1950, and the Chicago Packers–Zephyrs, which moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Bullets in 1963. Before the draft, the Bulls' general manager, Dick Klein, asked that each team reduce the number of protected players from eight to seven. In exchange, he agreed to pick last in each round of that year's college draft. He also promised Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics that he would not draft Boston's K. C. Jones, as long as Auerbach met with him to share his opinions of other players throughout the NBA.

Reader's Guide

The Bulls selected eighteen unprotected players, two from each of the nine other NBA teams. On the first day of the draft, they selected players from the Eastern Division teams; on the second day, they picked from the Western Division teams. The Bulls' selections included former first overall pick Bob Boozer, three-time All-Star Johnny Kerr and one-time All-Star Len Chappell. Kerr retired from playing prior to the start of the season, and was later named the franchise's first head coach.

Another expansion draft pick, Al Bianchi, also retired as a player and was later named the team's assistant coach. Dick Klein had been planning to hire Kerr and Bianchi as coaches before the draft even took place, but because they were still under playing contracts with other teams, Klein needed to draft them instead of hiring them outright. Ten players from the expansion draft joined the Bulls for their inaugural season, but only six played more than one season for the team.

Guy Rodgers—whom the Bulls acquired in exchange for Jim King and Jeff Mullins—and Jerry Sloan were named to the 1967 All-Star Game, becoming the franchise's first All-Stars.

Did You Know?

• Sloan played ten seasons with the Bulls and became the Bulls' franchise leader in games played when he retired in 1976, a record which has since been broken by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
• Sloan then coached the Bulls from 1979 to 1982, and in 1988, embarked upon a coaching career with the Utah Jazz that lasted 23 years.
• Sloan has since been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach, as has fellow draftee John Thompson.