2012 WNBA draft

The 2012 WNBA draft was the league's annual process for determining which teams receive the rights to negotiate with players entering the league. The draft was held on April 16, 2012, at the ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut. The first round was shown on ESPN2 (HD), with the second and third rounds shown on NBA TV and ESPNU.

The lottery selection to determine the order of the top four picks in the 2012 draft occurred on November 10, 2011. The Los Angeles Sparks won the first pick, while the Chicago Sky, Minnesota Lynx and Tulsa Shock were awarded the second, third and fourth picks respectively. The remaining first-round picks and all the second- and third-round picks were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss records in the previous season.

Below were the chances for each team to get specific picks in the 2012 draft lottery, rounded to three decimal places:

• February 1, 2011: Los Angeles acquired a second-round pick from Tulsa as part of the Andrea Riley transaction.
• April 11, 2011: Minnesota acquired a second-round pick from Atlanta as part of the Felicia Chester/Rachel Jarry transaction.
• April 11, 2011: Atlanta acquired a second-round pick from Washington as part of the Lindsey Harding trade.
• April 11, 2011: Washington acquired a first-round pick from Atlanta as part of the Lindsey Harding trade.
• April 11, 2011: Phoenix acquired a third-round pick from Connecticut as part of the Tahnee Robinson transaction.
• April 11, 2011: Minnesota acquired a second-round pick from New York as part of the Jessica Breland transaction.
• April 11, 2011: Minnesota acquired a first-round pick from Washington as part of the Nicky Anosike trade.
• April 29, 2011: Indiana acquired a third-round pick from Seattle as part of the Katie Smith/Erin Phillips three-team trade.
• April 29, 2011: Washington acquired a first-round pick from Seattle and a third-round pick from Indiana as part of the Katie Smith/Erin Phillips three-team trade.
• April 29, 2011: Seattle acquired a second-round pick from Indiana as part of the Katie Smith/Erin Phillips three-team trade.
• May 2, 2011: Tulsa acquired second- and third-round picks from San Antonio as part of the Scholanda Robinson transaction.
• May 27, 2011: Minnesota has the right to swap third-round picks with New York as part of the Quanitra Hollingsworth transaction.
• June 1, 2011: Los Angeles acquired a second-round pick from Chicago as part of the Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton trade.
• January 2, 2012: Seattle acquired the second overall pick from Chicago and Chicago acquired the 23rd overall pick from Seattle as part of the Swin Cash trade.
• February 28, 2012: Phoenix traded the 18th pick to Minnesota in exchange for Charde Houston and the 24th pick.

Source^[1]

The WNBA announced on April 11, 2012, that 15 players had been invited to attend the draft. Unless indicated otherwise, all players listed are Americans who played at U.S. colleges.^[2]

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
1	Nneka Ogwumike *	United States	Los Angeles Sparks	Stanford
2	Shekinna Stricklen		Seattle Storm (from Chicago)	Tennessee
3	Devereaux Peters		Minnesota Lynx (from Washington)	Notre Dame
4	Glory Johnson +		Tulsa Shock	Tennessee
5	Shenise Johnson		San Antonio Silver Stars	Miami (FL)
6	Samantha Prahalis		Phoenix Mercury	Ohio State
7	Kelley Cain		New York Liberty	Tennessee
8	Natalie Novosel		Washington Mystics (from Atlanta)	Notre Dame
9	Astan Dabo #	Mali	Connecticut Sun	Reims Basket (France)
10	LaSondra Barrett #	United States	Washington Mystics (from Seattle)	LSU
11	Sasha Goodlett		Indiana Fever	Georgia Tech
12	Damiris Dantas	Brazil	Minnesota Lynx	CD Bosco-Celta de Vigo (Spain)

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
13	Farhiya Abdi	Sweden	Los Angeles Sparks (from Tulsa)	Frisco SIKA (Czech Republic)
14	Tiffany Hayes *	United States	Atlanta Dream (from Washington)	Connecticut
15	Khadijah Rushdan #		Los Angeles Sparks (from Chicago)	Rutgers
16	Tyra White #		Los Angeles Sparks	Texas A&M
17	Riquna Williams +		Tulsa Shock (from San Antonio)	Miami (FL)
18	Julie Wojta		Minnesota Lynx (from Phoenix)	Green Bay
19	Kayla Standish #		Minnesota Lynx (from New York)	Gonzaga
20	Nika Barič #	Slovenia	Minnesota Lynx (from Atlanta)	Spartak Moscow (Russia)
21	Chay Shegog	United States	Connecticut Sun	North Carolina
22	Keisha Hampton		Seattle Storm	DePaul
23	Shey Peddy		Chicago Sky (from Indiana via Seattle)	Temple
24	C'eira Ricketts #		Phoenix Mercury (from Minnesota)	Arkansas

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
25	Vicki Baugh	United States	Tulsa Shock	Tennessee
26	Anjale Barrett #		Washington Mystics	Maryland
27	Sydney Carter		Chicago Sky	Texas A&M
28	April Sykes		Los Angeles Sparks	Rutgers
29	Lynetta Kizer		Tulsa Shock (from San Antonio)	Maryland
30	Christine Flores #		Phoenix Mercury	Missouri
31	Jacki Gemelos		Minnesota Lynx (from New York)	USC
32	Isabelle Yacoubou (pick later voided)	France	Atlanta Dream	Valencia (Spain)
33	Amanda Johnson #	United States	Phoenix Mercury (from Connecticut)	Oregon
34	Courtney Hurt [fr] #		Indiana Fever (from Seattle)	VCU
35	Briana Gilbreath		Washington Mystics (from Indiana)	USC
36	Katelan Redmon		New York Liberty (from Minnesota)	Gonzaga

• List of first overall WNBA draft picks

• "All-Time WNBA Draft List". WNBA. Archived from the original on October 12, 2008.

• 2012 WNBA draft board