The 2026 NBA draft will begin on Tuesday, June 23 and wrap up on Wednesday, June 24, the league announced today (Twitter link). It will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
As has been the case since 2024, the draft will be held across two days, with the first 30 picks made on day one and the second round – beginning at No. 31 – happening the following day. Each round will begin at 8:00 pm Eastern time, per the NBA.
While the draft format is unchanged, the schedule looks a little different than usual. When the draft was a single-day event, it was regularly held on Thursday evenings, and after switching to the two-day format two years ago, the league has kept the second round on Thursdays while conducting the first round on Wednesdays.
This year, the draft will begin on a Tuesday. The change may be designed to avoid a direct conflict with the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The U.S. is one of the host countries for the event and Team USA will be in action against Türkiye on the evening of Thursday, June 25.
Certain draft-related deadlines that are connected to the date of the draft itself have now been established, including the NCAA’s deadline for early entrants to declare for the draft — it falls 60 days before the draft, which will be April 24 (11:59 pm ET). Additionally, the NBA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw from the draft pool falls 10 days before the draft. That will be June 13 (5:00 pm ET).
You know what else would be cool? If they just got it all done in one night.
You can’t be a basketball fan. Plenty of other stuff to watch.
2017 draft — 16 one and done players from college were selected. A record that could be broken this draft. This year’s second rd will have plenty of bigs. Plenty of talent in 2nd rd. NBA should be a two day event. With the influx of foreign talent. Really has to be
link to basketball-reference.com