LeBron James was the first overall pick in 2003. Twenty-two drafts later, he is still in the league, and ten of the players selected first overall after him are not.
The list spans 14 years of draft lotteries: Dwight Howard (2004), Andrew Bogut (2005), Andrea Bargnani (2006), Greg Oden (2007), Derrick Rose (2008), Blake Griffin (2009), John Wall (2010), Anthony Bennett (2013), Ben Simmons (2016), and Markelle Fultz (2017). Some retired gracefully. Some were broken by injuries. Bennett played 151 NBA games total. Oden, the most tragic case, logged 105.
What makes the list staggering isn’t just the names — it’s the resumes attached to them. Rose won MVP at 22, the youngest ever. Howard was a three-time Defensive Player of the Year and an eight-time All-NBA selection. Griffin was a six-time All-Star. Wall was a five-time All-Star. These weren’t busts. Most of them were, at their peaks, franchise-cornerstone talents. And every single one of them is now out of the NBA while the man drafted before all of them is averaging 20.9 points in his 23rd season.
The Basketball Reference career line tells the story in raw form: 1,622 games, 43,440 points, 26.8 points per game across 23 years. James played 70 games last season at age 40 and made the All-Star team. He has now played more NBA seasons than any player in history, and the gap between him and the next-longest-tenured active player is not close.
Here is where the narrative and the data need a footnote. The inclusion of Ben Simmons on the “outlasted” list is borderline. Simmons was bought out by the Brooklyn Nets in February 2025 and subsequently signed with the Los Angeles Clippers, meaning he may still technically occupy a roster spot. If Simmons is active in 2025-26, the count drops to nine. If he is not — and his injury history, which has limited him to 90 total games over the last four seasons, makes that a live question — the number holds at ten.
Either way, the broader point is unaffected. Between the 2004 and 2017 drafts, the NBA produced 14 first overall picks. Four of them — Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Andrew Wiggins, and Karl-Anthony Towns — are still active. The other ten are gone. LeBron predates all 14.
Consider the survival rate. Of the 22 players drafted first overall from 2003 through 2024, 11 are currently active in the NBA. James, the oldest of the bunch by a half-decade over Howard, is one of them. The average career length for a first overall pick is roughly 12 seasons. James is in his 23rd. He has now outlasted the entire career arc of Rose — a former MVP — by nearly a decade.
The players still standing alongside him from the first-pick club are all in their 20s or early 30s. Irving is 33. Davis is 32. Wiggins is 30. Towns is 29. Deandre Ayton is 26. Zion Williamson is 25. Anthony Edwards is 23. Cade Cunningham is 23. Paolo Banchero is 22. Victor Wembanyama is 21. Zaccharie Risacher is 20. James is 41.
He was drafted before any of them were born, in some cases. He was a Cleveland Cavalier when Greg Oden was a freshman at Ohio State. He had already won two MVPs by the time John Wall stepped on an NBA floor. He had already won a championship by the time Anthony Bennett heard his name called.
And he is still on the floor.
Sources
- Basketball Reference — LeBron James Career Stats
- Wikipedia — List of First Overall NBA Draft Picks
- Basketball Reference — 2003 NBA Draft