In 1978, the Boston Celtics drafted a little-known junior eligible player from Indiana State named Larry Bird with the sixth pick in the first round.
It wasn't a move that elicited a lot of attention at the time, although it would later prove to be the saving grace of a very troubled league and franchise.
Bird, who still had a fifth year of playing time left in college, was able to be selected under the rules of that time since his original class was graduating in 1978. Larry had attended Indiana University in the fall of 1974, but left before the season even started. He later went to small Northwood Institute in southern Indiana before he enrolled and starred at ISU.
