The NBA will hold its 79th draft on Wednesday and Thursday. Thirty first-round picks will be made starting at 7 p.m. CDT Wednesday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NBA teams have drafted 49 players from Alabama high schools and colleges in the first round, and AL.com is counting down to the 2025 draft with a decade-by-decade look at the state’s first-rounders, including the 1980s:

Three members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame played high school hoops in Alabama. One got picked in the first round of the NBA Draft.

Leeds High School’s Charles Barkley joined the Philadelphia 76ers from Auburn as the fifth choice in the 1984 draft. The draft is infamously remembered, at least in Portland, because the Trail Blazers took Kentucky center Sam Bowie at No. 2, leaving North Carolina swingman Michael Jordan for the Chicago Bulls at No. 3.

The Houston Rockets had taken Houston center Hakeem Olajuwon at No. 1. North Carolina center Sam Perkins went to the Dallas Mavericks before the Sixers chose Barkley.

The other Alabama high school players in the Hall of Fame are Artis Gilmore of Carver High School in Dothan and Ben Wallace of Central High School in Hayneville.

The Bulls picked Gilmore with the 117th selection in the 1971 NBA Draft. But that’s because Gilmore had signed with the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels three days after his senior season ended in Jacksonville’s 74-72 loss to Western Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. Gilmore had 12 points, 22 rebounds and 11 blocked shots in his final college game.

Chicago used a seventh-round selection on Gilmore to secure his NBA rights. That paid off in 1976 when the NBA’s absorption of the ABA did not include the Colonels, and Gilmore averaged 20.1 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocked shots per game over the next six seasons for the Bulls.

Wallace didn’t get drafted. He entered the NBA from Virginia Union as a rookie free agent with the Washington Bullets in 1996 to start a 16-season career.

Entering 1980, seven of the 33 NBA drafts had included in the first round at least one prospect who had played at an Alabama high school or college. But 1980 started a streak of nine first rounds that included a player with Alabama basketball roots, a run that featured the selection of Barkley.

The NBA Draft first-round picks with Alabama basketball roots in the 1980s included:

1980: Andrew Toney (Glenn High School in Birmingham), No. 8 by the Philadelphia 76ers

After playing at Louisiana-Lafayette, Toney became known as “The Boston Strangler” because of his performances during the Sixers’ rivalry with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s. The 6-foot-3 guard spent all eight of his NBA seasons in Philadelphia, played in the NBA All-Star games in 1983 and 1984 and averaged 19.7 points per game for the 76ers’ NBA championship team in the 1982-83 season. In 468 NBA regular-season games, Toney averaged 15.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game. He averaged 17.4 points in 72 playoff games. In the 1982 NBA Finals, Toney averaged 26.0 points as Philadelphia lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. The next year, when the Sixers swept the Lakers, Toney averaged 22.0 per game in the Finals.

1981: Kevin Loder (Alabama State), No. 17 by the Kansas City Kings

A 6-foot-6 forward, Loder went in the first round after he averaged 22.2 and 23.3 points per game in his final two seasons at Alabama State. In 148 NBA regular-season games, Loder averaged 5.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists. Loder played all but one of his 148 NBA games with Kansas City. Loder had a pair of 25-point games during his three seasons.

1982: Eddie Phillips (Parker High School in Birmingham, Alabama), No. 21 by the New Jersey Nets

After averaging 15.9 points and 9.3 rebounds in four seasons at Alabama, concluding with a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA tournament, the 6-foot-7 forward played only one NBA season. In 48 NBA regular-season games, Phillips averaged 3.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 0.6 assists. After Phillips’ rookie season, the Nets traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers before the 1983-84 campaign. When the Sixers waived him, Phillips finished his basketball career overseas.

1983: Ennis Whatley (Phillips High School in Birmingham, Alabama), No. 13 by the Kansas City Kings

In two seasons at Alabama, Whatley averaged 13.7 points and 6.3 assists per game, and the 6-foot-3 guard started his NBA career by averaging 8.3 assists for the Bulls. But his next nine seasons in the NBA were spread across 13 years with seven teams. In 385 NBA regular-season games, Whatley averaged 5.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game.

1984: Charles Barkley (Leeds High School, Auburn), No. 5 by the Philadelphia 76ers

“Sir Charles” entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer in 2006 after a 16-season NBA career. The 6-foot-6 forward played in 11 All-Star Games – each one from 1987 through 1997. Barkley won the NBA MVP for the 1992-93 season in his first campaign with Phoenix, when he averaged 25.6 points, 12.2 rebounds and a career-high 5.1 assists per game in leading the Suns to the NBA Finals. He also won an Olympic gold medal in 1992 as a member of the Dream Team at the Barcelona Olympics. In 1,073 NBA regular-season games, Barkley averaged 22.1 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.9 steals.

1985: Terry Catledge (South Alabama), No. 21 by the Philadelphia 76ers

The 6-foot-8 power forward had averaged 21.7 points and 10.8 rebounds in three seasons at South Alabama to become the first first-round pick produced by the Jaguars. Catledge had the best of his eight NBA seasons in 1989-90, when he averaged 19.4 points and 7.6 rebounds for the Orlando Magic, which had selected him in the expansion draft before the season. In 515 NBA regular-season games, Catledge averaged 12.7 points and 6.4 rebounds.

1986: Chuck Person (Brantley High School, Auburn), No. 4 by the Indiana Pacers

Person did not make a single 3-point shot while averaging 18.3 points per game in four seasons at Auburn because it did not exist in the college game during his career. But “The Rifleman” dropped in 1,220 3-point baskets during a 13-season NBA career, which ranked seventh in NBA history at the end of his final season. The 6-foot-8 forward reached a career high of 21.6 points per game for the Pacers in the 1988-89 season. In 943 NBA regular-season games, Person averaged 14.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists.

1986: Buck Johnson (Hayes High School in Birmingham, Alabama), No. 20 by the Houston Rockets

A 20.7-points-per-game scorer as a senior at Alabama, the 6-foot-7 forward averaged 14.8 points for the Rockets in 1989-90, the best of his seven NBA seasons, which were followed by 10 seasons playing overseas. In 505 NBA regular-season games, Johnson averaged 9.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists.

1987: Derrick McKey (Alabama), No. 9 by the Seattle Supersonics

After averaging 18.7 points per game in his final season at Alabama, McKey embarked on a 15-year NBA career, during which his team missed the playoffs only twice. In the eight seasons from 1988-89 through 1995-96, McKey averaged 14.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game. In 937 NBA regular-season games, McKey averaged 11.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals. He also played in 142 postseason games.

1987: Jim Farmer (Houston Academy in Dothan, Alabama), No. 20 by the Dallas Mavericks

The second first-rounder drafted from Alabama in 1987, when the Crimson Tide lost in the Sweet 16 as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tourney, Farmer was among the four Alabama players picked that year. The 6-foot-4 guard played for five teams in his five NBA seasons. In 136 NBA regular-season games, Farmer averaged 5.3 points, 1.4 rebounds and 0.8 assists.

1988: Chris Morris (Auburn), No. 4 by the New Jersey Nets

The 6-foot-8 swingman averaged 20.7 points per game as a senior at Auburn and reached an NBA high of 14.8 points per game in his second season. Morris’ scoring average was 12.9 points per game for the first eight of his 11 seasons in the NBA. He went to the NBA Finals twice with the Utah Jazz and averaged 17.5 points in a six-game loss to the Chicago Bulls in 1998. In 747 NBA regular-season games, Morris averaged 11.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.2 steals.

The 1980 draft featured 23 first-round picks, and the 1989 draft had 27 first-round picks. Wednesday’s first round will include 30 selections.

Two other players with Alabama basketball roots went with choices in the 1980s that would be in the first round of the 2025 draft.

In 1981, the San Antonio Spurs picked South Alabama forward Ed Rains at No. 30.

In 1982, the Spurs picked UAB guard Oliver Robinson from Woodlawn High School in Birmingham at No. 24.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.