The Big 12 had a record-setting night during the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday night. Nine Big 12 players were drafted in the first round, two more than the Big 12 had in the 2010 NBA Draft. It was a fantastic showing for the conference, with seven teams represented of those nine selections.
AJ Dybansta and Darryn Peterson going No. 1 and No. 2 overall certainly lifted the conference’s profile in a big way. There’s no way to know for sure whether these players will be stars in the NBA; each player’s landing spot and individual situation play a big role. The same goes for the other seven players from the Big 12 who were drafted in the first round. It got me thinking: who are the top Big 12 players ever drafted who went on to have a great NBA career?
I decided to make an all-time Big 12 starting five, which is subjective but one I would put up against anyone else’s list. Rules for making your starting five: they must have played in the Big 12 between 1996 and 2026. A player needed to be on a team that played in the Big 12 during that season. For instance, even though Texas and Oklahoma are no longer in the conference, players from the early-era Big 12 would be included. If a player from Arizona or BYU did not play in the Big 12 (from years prior to joining the conference), those players are not eligible for the list. This list is also based on how well their NBA careers turned out, not just on how they played in college. With those parameters in place, let’s get to my picks for the ultimate Big 12 starting five.
Center: Joel Embiid, Kansas
Embiid didn’t have a long career at Kansas. When healthy, he has been one of the most dominant big men in the NBA throughout his career. He was drafted No. 3 overall in 2016 and has spent his entire career with the Philadelphia 76ers. He has averaged 28 points, 11 rebounds, and four assists across his decade in the league. If you’re not picking Embiid as your all-time Big 12 starting center, you might want to get your head checked.
Power Forward: Blake Griffin, Oklahoma
Griffin was the No.1 overall pick by the LA Clippers in 2010. He had a dominant run with the Clippers, averaging nearly 22 points and 10 rebounds per game over his 7½ seasons in LA. He continued to have great success with the Detroit Pistons after being traded there during the 2017-2018 season. One of his best individual seasons came with the Pistons in 2018-2019, when he averaged nearly 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. His numbers dipped a bit late in his career due to some injuries, but he was a dominant player for a decade in the NBA and was one of the greatest dunkers of all time. He deserves a spot on the all-time Big 12 starting five.
Small Forward: Kevin Durant, Texas
Durant was drafted by the Seattle Super Sonics in 2007, led the team’s move to Oklahoma City, and turned the young Thunder into a respected franchise. He led them to an NBA Finals appearance before ultimately winning two NBA Championships with the Golden State Warriors. You can’t leave off one of the greatest players of his generation from a Big 12 starting five.
Durant changed the way the NBA views big men in basketball. Durant is a guard with the size of a center. He was a freak and continues to play at a high level 18 years into his career. The sustained individual success he has seen has been achieved by only a handful of players in the modern era. The way he has dominated for so long cements his status as one of the starters on the all-time Big 12 starting five.
Over his career, he’s averaged 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists, and has shot over 50% from the field in that span of 18 years. He is a 16-time NBA All-Star, a six-time first-team all-NBA, four-time scoring champion, two-time NBA Finals MVP, and one-time league MVP. He is also a four-time Olympic Gold Medalist. That makes him the most decorated NBA Olympian of all time.
Durant is a once-in-a-lifetime player who will go down as one of the best players in NBA history, as well as one of the best, if not the best, to ever come out of the Big 12 to this point.
Shooting Guard: Paul Pierce, Kansas
Paul Pierce ushered in the move of Big 8 basketball to Big 12 basketball. He was the Big 12’s first-ever tournament MVP and won that award twice. He was first-team Big 12 and first-team All-American in his final season at Kansas. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics with the No. 10 pick in the 1998 NBA Draft.
Pierce played 15 of his 19 years with the Celtics and became a legend in Boston. He was a 10-time NBA All-Star and led the Celtics to an NBA Championship in 2008, where he won NBA Finals MVP. After his rookie season, there wasn’t a year in Boston in which he didn’t average at least 18.5 points per game in a season with the Celtics. There were five seasons in which he averaged over 25 points per game, with his highest season average coming in the 2005-2006 season, when he averaged 26.8 points per game.
Pierce had his number retired by both Kansas and the Celtics. He is also in the NBA Hall of Fame. Even though he is the second Jayhawk in the starting five, he is a must-start for your all-time Big 12 starting lineup.
Point Guard: Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State
I wanted to get a younger player into my starting five, and Cunningham slightly edged out former Oklahoma Sooner Trae Young for the point guard spot. Cunningham doesn’t have the lifetime stats and achievements that the other players in the starting five have, but he is one of the rising young stars in the NBA. Cunningham was drafted No.1 overall by the Detroit Pistons in 2021. The Pistons were the worst team in the league when Cunningham was drafted, and he has helped turn the franchise around completely. This past season, he led the Pistons to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They were knocked out in the semifinals, but the turnaround for that franchise has been unmistakable, and Cunningham has been the centerpiece of it all.
Cunningham averaged 24 points, 10 assists, and 5.5 rebounds per game for the 2025-2026 season. The year before that, he averaged 26 points, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds per game. He is starting to show consistency in his game, suggesting he could be a franchise player year in and year out. Cunningham has been selected to the All-Star game in each of the past two seasons, and he was a first-team NBA member this past season. Cunningham is going to be a player who will be talked about as one of the best in the NBA throughout the prime of his career. As his star is rising and his career continues to ascend, I’m getting Cunningham as the starting point guard for my all-time Big 12 starting five.
No one is beating my starting five. You can try to make one, but it’s not going to happen. Who would you pick for your all-time Big 12 starting five? Maybe, in 20 years, Dybansta or Peterson could be included in this list. It will be fun to see how their careers, as well as those of the other Big 12 players drafted, play out.
