who was the first black basketball player at the university of kentucky
Tom Payne (basketball) A 7-foot, 1-inch center, Payne played with the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA during the 1971-1972 season.[2] He was also the first African American ever to play basketball for the University of Kentucky. Payne is currently incarcerated in Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange, Kentucky.[3]
NBA high school draftees In the early years of the NBA draft, a player had to finish his four-year college eligibility to be eligible for selection. Reggie Harding, who had graduated from high school but did not enroll in a college, became the first player drafted out of high school when the Detroit Pistons selected him in the fourth round of the 1962 draft.[3] However, the NBA rules at that time prohibited a high school player to play in the league until one year after his high school class graduated.[4][5] Thus, he spent a year playing in a minor basketball league before he was drafted again in the 1963 draft by the Pistons.[6] He finally entered the league in the 1963–64 season and played four seasons in the NBA and American Basketball Association (ABA).[7]