The NBA will hold its 79th draft on June 25-26. 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 1960s:

Picking last in the first round of the NBA Draft, Red Auerbach had chosen future members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame when he took Satch Sanders in 1960 and John Havlicek in 1962. The talent influx helped perpetuate the Boston Celtics dynasty.

Coming off Boston’s fifth straight NBA championship, Auerbach came to the 1963 draft with the last pick in the first round again and in need of more young talent with Jim Loscutoff, Frank Ramsay and Clyde Lovellette in their 30s.

Auerbach picked Colorado State All-American Bill Green at No. 9 in the 1963 NBA Draft. But Green never played a game in the NBA – not because he wasn’t good enough, but because he was afraid to fly.

Green became the second prospect who played at an Alabama high school or college selected in the first round of the NBA Draft and the only one in the 1960s. Auerbach also picked the state’s first first-round choice in 1958 – Texas Southern center Bennie Swain from Westside High School in Talladega.

Green played at Carver High School in Gadsden before going to Colorado State. Across three seasons with the Rams, the 6-foot-6 Green averaged 22.1 points and 9.6 rebounds. As a senior in 1962-63, Green averaged 28.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game to earn first-team All-American recognition by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Newspaper Enterprise Association.

But Green came out of Colorado State with something besides impressive stats and accolades.

“One time, we were on our way back from Utah,” Green recalled later, “and the plane was definitely out of control. Baggage was falling out at the back of the plane. People had started praying. Everyone was panicked. I decided it was time to be concerned. Then I got stuck in a rainstorm over Mississippi. After that, I just couldn’t deal with it.”

When the Celtics picked Green, Auerbach didn’t know about the prospect’s aerophobia. For a preseason game against the Hawks, Auerbach allowed Green to take the train to St. Louis, with the understanding the rookie would fly back to Boston with the team.

“The fear just built to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore,” Green said. “I made up my mind. I wouldn’t do it. Auerbach told me to go work on it and come back later.”

When Green returned to Boston by bus, Auerbach recalled, “As soon as I saw him, I said, ‘Here’s your carfare home. See you later.’”

Auerbach didn’t see him later. But that wasn’t the end of Green’s basketball career.

In the 1963-64 season, what would have been Green’s rookie year, the NBA had nine teams. A step below on the basketball ladder was the Eastern Professional Basketball League, a circuit compact enough to drive to the weekend games.

Green played eight seasons in the league. After averaging 20.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in 1965-66 and 23.7 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in 1966-67 for the Wilkes-Barre Barons, Green put up 25.4 points and 13.3 rebounds per game in 1967-68 to earn all-league recognition.

In 1967-68, the American Basketball Association played its first season. The ABA didn’t raid only the NBA for talent, but the top players in the Eastern League went for the red, white and blue basketball, too. Not Green. The ABA teams flew, too.

Green went on to become a teacher and principal in New York City.

After Green, the NBA Draft wouldn’t have another first-round prospect who played at an Alabama high school or college until 1972.

By the final draft of the 1960s, the first round featured 15 picks. But that’s only half the number that will be made in one week.

Three other players with Alabama basketball roots went with selections in the 1960s that would be in the first round of the 2025 draft.

In 1965, the New York Knicks picked Arkansas-Pine Bluff guard Hal Blevins from Druid High School in Tuscaloosa at No. 17 and the Baltimore Bullets picked Auburn forward Joe Newton from Fayette County High School at No. 24.

In 1969, Baltimore picked Alabama State forward Willie Scott from Carver High School in Gadsden at No. 29.

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