June 23, 2016
NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Pelicans selected Buddy Hield with the sixth overall pick of tonight’s NBA Draft.
Hield, 6-4, 214, comes off his senior season at the University of Oklahoma, where he claimed the Naismith Award, Oscar Robertson Trophy, John R. Wooden Award, Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award, as well as Consensus First Team All-America, Big 12 Player of the Year and First Team All-Big 12 honors. Hield helped lead the Sooners to the 2016 Final Four on his 25.0 points per game, ranked second in the nation, and his top ranked 3.97 three-point field goals per game, while registering twelve 30-point performances during the course of his senior campaign. Over his four-year career, Hield averaged a career 17.4 points, finishing as the Big 12’s al-time leading scorer (2,661).
A native of Freeport, Bahamas, Hield becomes the eighth lottery selection in New Orleans franchise history, the first since 2013, and the first Oklahoma product to be selected in franchise history. Hield is the first Sooner to be drafted since Romero Osby in 2013 (51st overall) and the first taken in the first round since Blake Griffin in 2009 (1st overall).
