Today is the 15th anniversary of one of the greatest NBA Draft classes the league has ever seen. Of the six active players remaining from the Class of 2003, four of them appeared in this year’s Finals – LeBron James, Zaza Pachulia, Kyle Korver and David West.
Four of the top five picks included LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, and out of that group Bosh is the only one who’s a borderline Hall of Famer. The rest are shoe-ins.
2003 NBA Draft Class Fashion Glow Up
LeBron, fifteen years after being selected with the No. 1 overall pick straight out of high school, remains the best player on the planet, having led his teams to appearances in a remarkable eight straight NBA Finals. At a time in their careers where even the greatest begin to physically break down and lose their skills, his output in this year’s postseason defied logic, because never before has one players supporting cast depended so much on their best player to carry them. LeBron accounted for nearly a third of his teams box-score statistics: points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots in this year’s playoffs.
Lebron James Career Highlights
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James won titles with Miami and Cleveland in 2012, 2013 and 2016, where he earned Finals MVP honors in each. The Rookie of the Year during the 2003-2004 season, he’s a 14-time All-Star who has appeared on the All-NBA First Team 12 times. He also appeared on the All-NbA First Defensive team for five consecutive years from 2009 to 2014. This year, at the age of 33, he averaged 28 points, nine rebounds and nine assists per game.
Picked by the Denver Nuggets with the third overall selection, Carmelo might be on the decline after his sub-par season in OKC, but he’ll go down in history as one of the most devastating offensive weapons the game has ever seen.
Carmelo Anthony’s 62 Point Night! Watch Every Made Field Goal!
Carmelo Anthony made twenty-three shots from the field in his historic sixty-two point night. Here’s all of them. Visit nba.com/video for more highlights. About the NBA: The NBA is the premier professional basketball league in the United States and Canada.
After leading Syracuse to a national championship as a true freshman in 2003, in a virtuoso effort that will never be forgotten by anyone who witnessed it, Melo has been a ten-time All-Star who’s averaged 24 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game.
Bosh was taken fourth by the Toronto Raptors. Blood clots ended his career prematurely two years ago, but he was an 11-time All-Star who led the Raptors to their first playoff appearance in five years and their first ever division title in 2006-2007.
Chris Bosh is Clutch!
Check out Chris Bosh come through in the clutch over and over again for the Miami Heat. Where does he rank among the most clutch players in the NBA? About the NBA: The NBA is the premier professional basketball league in the United States and Canada.
When he went to Miami as a free agent in 2010, he was Toronto’s all-time leader in points, rebounds, blocks, double doubles, free throws made and minutes played. Playing alongside LeBron and Wade, Bosh won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
The Miami Heat selected Wade with the fifth overall selection after he led Marquette to the 2003 Final Four. The Chicago native won three rings with the Heat in 2006, 2012 and 2013. The Finals MVP in 2006, Wade is a 12-time All-Star.
Dwyane Wade’s Top 35 Plays of His Career!
We countdown Dwyane Wade’s Top 35 plays on his 35th birthday! About the NBA: The NBA is the premier professional basketball league in the United States and Canada. The league is truly global, with games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages, as well as NBA rosters at the start of the 2016-17 season featuring a record 113 international players from a record 41 countries and territories.
The 2003 Draft class also very solid pros further down the board in Nick Collison, Sasha Pavlovic, Kirk Hinrich, David West, Kyle Korver, Dahntay Jones, Boris Diaw, Kendric Perkins, Leandro Barbosa and Josh Howard, but there’s no denying that it’s considered one of the best ever because of how heavy it was at the top.
Some have suggested that the 2003 group is the best Draft class ever. But they’ll get a ferocious argument from those who lean towards the 1996 group with Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, and the stellar 1984 class that included Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and John Stockton.
Nevertheless, it’s common knowledge that those three classes – 2003, 1996 and 1984 – are The Gold Standard.
And no group in the last 15 years, including Kyrie Irvingand Klay Thompson’s class in 2011, James Harden and Steph Curry’s class in 2009, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love’s class in 2008 and John Wall and Paul George’s class in 2010 even comes remotely close.
