The 36-Year Wait Is OVER: Michigan Just Dropped a Historic Trio on the NBA

Holy smokes, did you catch the NBA Draft the other night? What went down on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn was absolutely wild for the Michigan Wolverines! For the first time in a whopping 36 years, Michigan saw THREE of their own get picked in the first round. Yeah, three first-rounders, coming off their first NCAA men’s basketball national championship in 37 years. Talk about going out on top!

A Championship Trio Takes Over the Lottery

This isn't just about three guys getting drafted. This is about three absolute game-changers, Morez Johnson Jr., Yaxel Lendeborg, and Aday Mara, all going in the first 12 picks of the lottery! Johnson, a 6'9" forward from Illinois, was snagged ninth overall by the Dallas Mavericks. He started all 40 games for the Wolverines, averaging 13.1 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds. Johnson had nine double-doubles and earned second-team All-Big Ten honors, anchoring Michigan's defense. Then there's Lendeborg, a forward from UAB, who went 11th to the Golden State Warriors. He was a beast, leading Michigan with 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists. Lendeborg was Big Ten Player of the Year, the first Wolverine since Nik Stauskas in 2014, and a consensus All-American! Finally, the big man, Aday Mara, a Spanish center from UCLA, got picked 12th by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Mara became one of the nation’s top defensive players, averaging

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12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and a ridiculous 2.6 blocks per game. He even set a Michigan single-season record with 103 blocked shots and was the first Wolverine in nearly four decades to earn Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. What a crew!

Michigan Joins Elite Company in Draft History

So, what does this historic night mean? These three became the 81st, 82nd, and 83rd players drafted from the Michigan program, cementing their legacy. Get this: Michigan became one of only five programs in NBA draft history to produce at least three lottery picks in a single draft since the lottery expanded to 14 picks in 2004. They join North Carolina (2005), Florida (2007), Kentucky (2015), and Duke (2019, 2025). North Carolina and Kentucky are the only ones with four lottery picks in one draft, and Duke is the only program to do it more than once. For Michigan, this is a new program record for lottery picks in a single draft, surpassing their previous multiple lottery pick years in 1990 and 1994. They also matched a school record with three first-round selections in the same draft, tying the 1990 class of Rumeal Robinson, Loy Vaught, and Terry Mills. This isn't just a big night for these players, it's a statement for Michigan basketball. After that national championship, they've shown the college hoops world that Ann Arbor is producing elite talent. It's going to be awesome watching Johnson, Lendeborg, and Mara tear it up in the NBA next season. Get ready, league, the Wolverines are coming!

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.