The Philadelphia 76ers have put 'The Process' in the hands of Washington guard Markelle Fultz.
The 6ft 4in Fultz was selected No 1 overall in the NBA draft and joined former LSU guard Ben Simmons as consecutive top picks for the Sixers.
Widely reviled and also admired, the Sixers' plan to go from worst-to-first by openly stripping the roster bare of talent to lose and gobble draft picks has resulted in Joel Embiid, Simmons and now Fultz.
After Fultz was off the board, the Los Angeles Lakers followed by taking Lonzo Ball, with the point guards from the Pac-12 Conference beginning a run of seven straight freshmen. Nine of the first 10 selections played just one season of college ball.
The draft received a jolt early in the first round when the Chicago Bulls traded Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Tom Thibodeau has enough young players in Minnesota and wanted a veteran like he had during his successful run coaching the Bulls. He found one in Butler, who the Wolves acquired along with the 16th overall pick for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the No 7 pick, which ended up being another freshman, Arizona's Lauri Markkanen.
While that was being completed, the draft got off to a familiar start with the same top-four picks as last year: Philadelphia, the Lakers, Boston and Phoenix.
Fultz averaged 23.2 points last season, tops among freshmen, and added 5.9 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game, the only Division I player to reach those stats. He walked across the stage on Thursday night at Barclays Center wearing orange sneakers made of basketballs.
Ball then got the wish he and his father, LaVar, wanted all along by staying in Los Angeles, where he starred last season at UCLA. LaVar Ball had said his son would only play for the Lakers, and it was clear that would happen when Lonzo got a phone call with the Lakers on the clock.
As Lonzo walked on stage to meet Commissioner Adam Silver and put on a purple Lakers hat, LaVar put on a gold and purple Big Baller Brand hat, the company he has started.
The Celtics then took Duke's Jayson Tatum at No 3 after moving down two spots in the trade with Philadelphia, drawing cheers from a large contingent of their fans at Barclays Center wearing green. The Suns took Josh Jackson of Kansas, the Sacramento Kings took Kentucky guard De'Aaron Fox at No 5 and the run of freshmen continued when the Orlando Magic selected Jonathan Isaac with the sixth pick.
Silver has talked about changing the NBA's age limit, saying the current rule that American-born players must be 19 and a year out of high school, but teams seem just fine with the current system. The run of freshmen bettered the 2014 record of four straight first-year players to start the draft, finally ending when the New York Knicks took French guard Frank Ntilikina at No 8.
The top 10 was rounded out with two more freshmen: Dennis Smith Jr of North Carolina State to Dallas at No 9, and Gonzaga's Zach Collins at No 10 with the Kings' second pick, which was later dealt to Portland for a pair of picks. Last year's record of 14 first-round freshmen fell when Brooklyn grabbed Jarrett Allen from Texas at No 22.
The NBA champion Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers didn't have a pick in the two-round draft.
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