Mississippi State's Arnett Moultrie was taken with the No. 27 pick of the 2012 NBA Draft held Thursday night in New Jersey.
In doing so, the former Bulldog completed the first-round trifecta for Mississippi State.
Moultrie also joins defensive tackle Fletcher Cox and pitcher Chris Stratton as 2012 first-round draft selections making Mississippi State the only university for the year to have a player drafted in the first round of the NFL, MLB, and NBA Drafts.
There have been 24 former Bulldogs who have been drafted in the NBA Draft with the first being Herb Hargett in 1951 by the Ft. Wayne Pistons at overall pick No. 4.
Moultrie, who averaged 16.4 points per game and led the Southeastern Conference in rebounding with 10.5 per game, is the first Bulldog taken in the first round since Erick Dampier and Dontae Jones had the honor in 1996.
Not long after Moultrie, who was a junior last season at MSU, was drafted by the World Champion Miami Heat, he was traded later to the Philadelphia 76ers where he will join St. John’s forward Maurice Harkless who was taken with the No. 15 pick by the 76ers.
Philadelphia took the Boston Celtics to seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals so the team hopes that players like Harkless and Moultrie can move the organization forward even more.
In his lone year with the Bulldogs, Moultrie helped them to a No. 15 national ranking on his way to being tabbed as the top basketball player in Mississippi by earning the C Spire Howell Trophy.
Moultrie expressed on Twitter how relieved he was that the process was over.
"Thanks for the support and thank God," Moultrie wrote.
Moultrie's teammates at MSU, Dee Bost and Renardo Sidney, went undrafted Thursday night.
Links:
[1] http://starkvilledailynews.com/sites/default/files/Moultrie px 29_0.jpg
[2] mailto:sdnsports@bellsouth.net
