Philippine Basketball Association draft
The Philippine Basketball Association draft is an annual event dating back to 1985 in which the twelve teams from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. The draft usually takes place between October to December, during the league's off-season. No player may sign with the PBA until he has been eligible for at least one draft. However, foreign player-nationals of Filipino descent are ineligible for both the draft and the league if they are aged 31 years and up. Eligibility. All players have  to be natural-born Filipinos. Persons who chose Philippine citizenship by the age of maturity are considered as natural-born citizens. For local players the requirements are that they must: Filipino-descended foreigners have almost the same requirements as locals except they must: Any person who played for the Philippines men's national basketball team is exempted from the D-League and is automatically eligible for selection. The changes in eligibility rules are in effect starting in the 2015 draft. For the 46th season's draft held on March 14, 2021, the PBA decided to forgo the seven-game requirement  after the 2020 PBA D-League Aspirants' Cup was cancelled. Imports – non-Filipino citizens, even those born in the Philippines – do not enter the PBA via the draft. They are directly signed by teams, and only play in some conferences. Naturalized citizens can only play in the association also as imports. But, an undrafted player with Filipino descent who is a foreign national age 31 and above is ineligible to be an import. Starting with the 47th season's draft in 2022, the following changes were implemented: Order. The natural drafting order is determined by the teams' final rankings within  each conference from the previous season, with rankings from the PBA Philippine Cup having heavier weight; the team with the worst record picks first, and the team with best winning percentage picking last in the first and second rounds. The drafting order is also subject to change if a team deals their draft picks in trades. The draft is finished if all teams have passed. Draft lottery. Before 2015, a draft lottery determined which team gets the first overall draft pick, but in a much smaller scale; only the two worst-performing teams in the preceding season participated. The team  with the worst record had a 67% chance of clinching the No. 1 seed while the second-worst only got a 33% chance. The lottery was usually held prior to the finals of the final conference of the season. It was abandoned after the controversies that aroused during the lottery for the first pick of the 2014 draft. Number of rounds. From 1985 to 2004 and since 2011, the PBA has had unlimited number of rounds until all the teams have passed, with all undrafted players becoming free agents. From 2005 to 2010, the association limited the draft to two  rounds. This restriction was attributed to an agreement between the PBA and the Philippine Basketball League (PBL), which also included a development fee to the PBL team from which the player was drafted. This was removed in 2011 as the PBL had folded, and amateur players played in the PBA D-League instead. Expansion draft. There have been three expansion drafts in the league's history. The first was in 1990, in which the new teams Pepsi Hotshots and the Pop Cola Sizzlers selected up to six players from the expansion pool, which is made up of three players from  each of the six existing franchises. The second was in 2000, when newcomers Batang Red Bull Energizers selected players from the draft. An expansion draft for new teams Blackwater Elite and Kia Sorento was held on July 18, 2014, so that both team can form its rosters for the 2014–15 season. The 10 existing PBA franchises protected up to 12 players in their roster. Two time MVP Danny Ildefonso of the Meralco Bolts was selected as the first pick of the expansion draft by Blackwater, followed by Reil Cervantes of Barako Bull by Kia. Carry over amateurs. If a new  franchise also has an existing franchise from an amateur league (from the Philippine Basketball League before 2011 and the PBA D-League afterwards), the franchise, upon approval from the PBA's Board of Governors, may be given an incentive of selecting players from their amateur team to be directly elevated to their PBA team. This was last given to the Welcoat Dragons, who elevated three players from their PBL team. List of first overall picks. Flags indicate the country were the player competed as college student-athletes; all players are Filipinos until proven otherwise, like Sonny Alvarado's case where  he fled the country as his citizenship was being questioned.