| 2002 WNBA draft | |
| Sport: | Basketball |
| Date: | April 19, 2002 |
| League: | WNBA |
| First: | Sue Bird Seattle Storm |
| Prev: | 2001 |
| Next: | 2003 |
The 2002 WNBA draft was the first to implement a lottery that arranges the order of the first four overall picks. The lottery gave four teams with the identically worst record of 10–22 from the 2001 season an equal chance to own the first overall selection, which the Seattle Storm did.[1]
Four of the top six draft picks, Sue Bird (#1), Swin Cash (#2), Asjha Jones (#4) and Tamika (Williams) Raymond (#6) were from the same team, the 2002 NCAA champion University of Connecticut.
| Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | Team | School / club team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sue Bird + | G | Seattle Storm | Connecticut | ||
| 2 | Swin Cash + | F | Detroit Shock | Connecticut | ||
| 3 | Stacey Dales-Schuman + | G | Washington Mystics | Oklahoma | ||
| 4 | Asjha Jones + | F | Washington Mystics (from Indiana) | Connecticut | ||
| 5 | Nikki Teasley + | G | Portland Fire (traded to Los Angeles) | |||
| 6 | F | Minnesota Lynx | Connecticut | |||
| 7 | G | Charlotte Sting (from Orlando) | Baylor | |||
| 8 | F | Cleveland Rockers (from Phoenix) | UAB | |||
| 9 | G | Charlotte Sting (traded to Minnesota) | ||||
| 10 | Michelle Snow + | C | Houston Comets | Tennessee | ||
| 11 | F | Utah Starzz | Baylor | |||
| 12 | G/F | Sacramento Monarchs | ||||
| 13 | C | Indiana Fever (from Miami via Phoenix) | Georgia | |||
| 14 | G | Utah Starzz (from New York) | Oklahoma | |||
| 15 | G/F | Miami Sol (from Cleveland via Phoenix) | Wisconsin | |||
| 16 | G | Los Angeles Sparks | Oklahoma |
| Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | Team | School / club team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Zuzi Klimešová | F | Indiana Fever (from Washington) | Vanderbilt | ||
| 18 | G/F | Detroit Shock | DePaul | |||
| 19 | F/C | Seattle Storm | ||||
| 20 | F | Detroit Shock (from Indiana) | ||||
| 21 | C | Detroit Shock (from Portland) | Indiana | |||
| 22 | G | Detroit Shock (from Minnesota) | Dexia Namur | |||
| 23 | F | Orlando Miracle | Rutgers | |||
| 24 | G | Cleveland Rockers (from Phoenix) | Florida | |||
| 25 | Tootie Shaw | F | Phoenix Mercury (from Charlotte) | |||
| 26 | F | New York Liberty (from Houston) | UNLV | |||
| 27 | F/C | Utah Starzz | Howard | |||
| 28 | G | Seattle Storm (from Sacramento) | ||||
| 29 | G/F | Miami Sol | Stanford | |||
| 30 | G | Los Angeles Sparks (from New York, traded to Portland) | ||||
| 31 | C | Cleveland Rockers | ||||
| 32 | F/C | Los Angeles Sparks |
| Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | Team | School / club team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | C | Washington Mystics | Alabama | |||
| 34 | G | Indiana Fever (from Detroit) | Purdue | |||
| 35 | F/C | Seattle Storm | ||||
| 36 | Teresa Geter | F/C | Washington Mystics (from Indiana) | |||
| 37 | G | Portland Fire | Colorado | |||
| 38 | G | Minnesota Lynx | Iowa | |||
| 39 | C | Orlando Miracle | ||||
| 40 | F | Phoenix Mercury | ||||
| 41 | G | Charlotte Sting | Oregon | |||
| 42 | G | Houston Comets | Alabama | |||
| 43 | C | Utah Starzz | Mobile | |||
| 44 | G | Sacramento Monarchs | Michigan | |||
| 45 | F | Miami Sol | Iowa | |||
| 46 | G | New York Liberty | ||||
| 47 | G/F | Detroit Shock (from Cleveland) | ||||
| 48 | F | Los Angeles Sparks |
| Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | Team | School / club team | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49 | C | Indiana Fever (from Washington) | Arizona | |||
| 50 | Melody Johnson | C | Portland Fire (from Detroit) | |||
| 51 | C | Sacramento Monarchs (from Seattle) | ||||
| 52 | G/F | Indiana Fever | Vanderbilt | |||
| 53 | G | Portland Fire | Florida | |||
| 54 | G | Minnesota Lynx | ||||
| 55 | G | Orlando Miracle | ||||
| 56 | F/C | Phoenix Mercury | North Carolina Central | |||
| 57 | F | Charlotte Sting | Wisconsin | |||
| 58 | C | Houston Comets | Stanford | |||
| 59 | G | Utah Starzz | Southern | |||
| 60 | F | Sacramento Monarchs | Arizona | |||
| 61 | F | Miami Sol | ||||
| 62 | F | New York Liberty | Maryland | |||
| 63 | G | Cleveland Rockers | Maryland | |||
| 64 | F | Los Angeles Sparks |
Connecticut Huskies players Tamika Williams, Sue Bird, Asjha Jones and Swin Cash were all selected in the first round of the draft. Each player had immediate impacts with their 2002 WNBA Teams. Cash, Bird and Williams accounted for 21.3, 19.9 and 17.3 percent, respectively, of their teams’ total points, rebounds and assists. Jones, a reserve, posted 8.8 percent of the Mystics' total output in those three key categories.[2]