Lusia Harris: The First Woman Officially Drafted by the NBA

Rarely in NBA history has a team selected a 6-foot-3 center in the draft. Even more unusual is a team selecting a woman. Yet that is exactly what happened in 1977 when the New Orleans Jazz used the 137th overall selection to draft Lusia Harris, one of the greatest women's college basketball players in American history.

Harris had just completed an extraordinary career at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. She had led the Lady Statesmen to three consecutive national championships, represented the United States in the Olympics and established herself as one of the most dominant centers in women's basketball.

Her selection by the Jazz was an unusual moment in professional sports history. Women were not competing in the NBA, and Harris had never expressed a serious intention to pursue a career in the men's professional league. Nevertheless, the Jazz made her an official selection in the 1977 NBA Draft.

Harris became the first woman to be officially drafted by an NBA team. The San Francisco Warriors had previously attempted to draft Denise Long in 1969, but the league voided that selection.

Although Harris never played in the NBA, her draft selection remains one of the most unusual entries in the league's history. More importantly, it represents only a small part of the remarkable career of a woman who helped transform college and international basketball.

Lusia Harris was born on February 10, 1955, in Minter City, Mississippi. She grew up in the Mississippi Delta, where basketball became an important part of her life.

Harris attended Amanda Elzy High School, where her unusual combination of size, strength and coordination helped make her an outstanding basketball player.

Standing 6 feet 3 inches tall, Harris was exceptionally effective around the basket. Her rebounding ability, interior scoring and physical presence made her difficult for opposing teams to defend.

She developed her skills during an era when opportunities for female athletes were expanding but remained considerably more limited than those available to men.

Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs, was enacted in 1972. Its implementation would contribute to major changes in women's college athletics during the following decades.

Harris entered college at a pivotal moment in the development of women's basketball, and she became one of the players who helped demonstrate the sport's growing quality and popularity.

Harris attended Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, from 1973 to 1977. She played for legendary coach Margaret Wade, who helped build one of the most successful women's basketball programs in the country.

Under Wade, Delta State became a national powerhouse. Harris was the centerpiece of a team that dominated its opponents through strong defense, rebounding and efficient interior scoring.

During her four-year college career, Harris helped Delta State compile a 109-6 record and win three consecutive Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championships.

The championships came in 1975, 1976 and 1977. These were AIAW titles, not NCAA championships. The NCAA did not begin sponsoring women's basketball championships until 1982.

1975 National Championship

In 1975, Delta State defeated the previously dominant Immaculata College program to capture its first AIAW national championship.

Immaculata had won the first three AIAW national titles, making Delta State's victory an important change in the competitive landscape of women's college basketball.

Harris was a major reason for that breakthrough. Her ability to score close to the basket and control rebounds gave Delta State an advantage against some of the strongest teams in the country.

1976 National Championship

Delta State returned to the national championship game in 1976 and again defeated Immaculata.

Harris averaged 31.2 points and 15.1 rebounds per game during the 1975-76 season, demonstrating her dominance as one of the nation's leading players.

The second consecutive title established Delta State as the premier women's basketball program of the mid-1970s.

1977 National Championship

In 1977, Harris led Delta State to a third consecutive national championship, defeating Louisiana State University in the title game.

The championship completed one of the most successful stretches in women's college basketball history.

Harris earned numerous individual honors, including three Kodak All-America selections and recognition as the outstanding player of the AIAW national tournament in each championship season.

She finished her career holding 15 Delta State statistical records and remained one of the most accomplished players in the program's history.

Historical sources differ on Harris's exact college scoring total. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame list 2,981 points, while a Delta State athletics retrospective lists 2,891. The commonly reported career scoring average is 25.9 points per game. The conflicting totals should be reconciled against Delta State's official statistical records before a definitive points total is published.

Harris's achievements extended far beyond college basketball.

In 1975, she helped the United States win a gold medal in women's basketball at the Pan American Games.

The following year, women's basketball made its Olympic debut at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.

Harris was selected for the United States team and became part of one of the most important events in women's basketball history.

On July 19, 1976, during the first women's basketball game in Olympic history, Harris scored the first basket in the history of the competition.

The basket came against Japan and gave Harris a permanent place in Olympic history.

The United States ultimately won the silver medal, finishing behind the Soviet Union.

Harris was the leading scorer and rebounder for the American team, demonstrating that her dominance at Delta State translated to international competition.

Her performance in Montreal helped bring additional attention to women's basketball in the United States, where the sport was still developing its national profile.

Following her outstanding college career, Harris became the subject of one of the most unusual selections in NBA Draft history.

On June 10, 1977, the New Orleans Jazz selected Harris in the seventh round of the 1977 NBA Draft, using the 137th overall pick.

The selection attracted attention because no woman had ever played in the NBA and the league had not previously recognized a woman's draft selection as valid.

Harris was surprised by the news. She had not expected an NBA team to draft her, and the idea of competing against male professional players was not something she had seriously pursued.

Her position also made the selection unusual. Harris was a 6-foot-3 center who had built her game around interior scoring and rebounding. At that height, she would have been considerably smaller than most NBA centers.

Harris was pregnant at the time of the draft, another factor that prevented her from attending an NBA training camp.

The Jazz's selection was widely interpreted as a publicity-oriented pick, although the team's precise internal motivations cannot be established solely from the public draft record.

Regardless of why New Orleans selected her, Harris's name officially appeared in the NBA Draft, creating a historical distinction that remains unique.

The Players Drafted Around Harris

Harris was selected immediately after the Phoenix Suns chose Alvin Scott of Oral Roberts.

The next selection belonged to the Seattle SuperSonics, who drafted Billy Reynolds of Northwestern State Louisiana.

The Kansas City Kings then selected Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner, now known as Caitlyn Jenner, in another unusual seventh-round selection.

Other players selected later in the draft included Lars Hansen, Ralph Drollinger, Ricky Marsh and John Olive. Some of these players eventually appeared in NBA games, illustrating how the league's lengthy drafts included a mixture of legitimate prospects and selections with little likelihood of producing NBA careers.

Harris was never expected to become a traditional NBA center. However, her selection demonstrated how exceptional her reputation had become in the basketball world.

Although Harris is commonly described as the first woman drafted by the NBA, an important historical distinction must be made.

In 1969, the San Francisco Warriors attempted to select high school basketball star Denise Long in the NBA Draft.

Long had become nationally known for her extraordinary high school scoring performances, and the Warriors' selection attracted considerable publicity.

However, NBA officials voided the pick because Long was not eligible under the league's draft rules.

Eight years later, the NBA allowed the New Orleans Jazz's selection of Harris to stand.

Consequently, Denise Long was the first woman selected in an attempted NBA draft pick, while Lusia Harris became the first woman officially drafted by an NBA team.

As of 2026, Harris remains the only woman whose NBA Draft selection was officially recognized.

To understand why the Jazz might have selected Harris, it helps to examine the state of the franchise in 1977.

The New Orleans Jazz entered the NBA as an expansion team in 1974. Their early seasons were difficult, with the franchise struggling to establish itself in the Western Conference.

The team possessed one of basketball's most exciting players in Pete Maravich, but it lacked the depth necessary to compete consistently with the league's stronger franchises.

In 1976-77, the Jazz finished with a 35-47 record and missed the playoffs.

Despite Maravich's remarkable scoring ability, the team had difficulty building a balanced roster around him.

Injuries, roster changes and questionable personnel decisions contributed to the franchise's problems.

During its five seasons in New Orleans, the Jazz never reached the NBA playoffs.

The team's first-round draft selections during those years were limited. Rich Kelley and James Hardy were the franchise's only two first-round selections before its relocation to Utah.

The original NBAHoopsOnline research also highlighted how few of the franchise's early draft picks developed into established NBA players. Many of its later-round selections never appeared in a regular-season NBA game.

Harris's selection was therefore part of a broader draft history in which New Orleans frequently used picks on players who were unlikely to contribute significantly to the franchise.

The Jazz also drafted in an era when the NBA conducted far more rounds than it does today. Teams often selected athletes from other sports or players who had little realistic opportunity to reach the league.

The Jazz's decision to select Harris belongs to that unusual chapter of draft history.

For more information about the franchise's early years, visit the New Orleans and Utah Jazz History Archive.

In the 1970s, the NBA Draft was much longer than the modern two-round event.

Teams frequently continued selecting players long after the most promising professional prospects had been chosen.

These late rounds occasionally produced useful NBA players, but they also became known for unusual selections and publicity-oriented picks.

Among the better-known examples were Olympic athletes and other celebrities who had no intention of pursuing an NBA career.

The 1977 draft included both Harris and Caitlyn Jenner, then widely known for winning the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics.

Other unusual draft selections over the years included track-and-field star Carl Lewis.

The league gradually shortened the draft. It was reduced to seven rounds in 1985, three rounds in 1988 and two rounds beginning in 1989.

Harris's selection did not by itself cause the NBA to shorten its draft. Rather, it illustrates the broad and sometimes unconventional nature of the league's drafting practices during that era.

Although Harris did not play in the NBA, she did briefly compete in professional women's basketball.

After completing her college career and becoming a mother, she joined the Houston Angels of the Women's Professional Basketball League.

The WBL began play in 1978 and represented an important early attempt to establish a professional women's basketball league in the United States.

Harris was associated with the Angels during the league's early years and played briefly during the 1979-80 season.

Her professional career was short, but she had already established an extraordinary basketball legacy through her accomplishments at Delta State and in international competition.

Long before the WNBA began play in 1997, Harris and other pioneers demonstrated that women's professional basketball deserved national attention and financial support.

Following her playing career, Harris returned to Mississippi and devoted much of her life to education, family and her local community.

She married George Stewart and became known as Lusia Harris-Stewart.

Harris worked as a teacher and basketball coach, helping young people develop their skills and confidence.

Although she had been one of the most dominant women's basketball players of her generation, she generally preferred a quieter life away from national attention.

Her achievements nevertheless continued to receive recognition from basketball organizations and historians.

In 1990, she entered the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1992, Harris became the first Black woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player.

She was also inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.

These honors recognized her importance not only as a basketball player but also as a pioneer who helped expand opportunities for future generations of female athletes.

In 2021, Harris became the subject of the documentary The Queen of Basketball, directed by Ben Proudfoot.

The film explored her remarkable career, the obstacles faced by women's basketball players during the 1970s and the historical importance of her achievements.

The documentary introduced Harris's story to a new generation of basketball fans who knew little about the dominant Delta State teams of the 1970s.

Harris died on January 18, 2022, at age 66.

Later that year, The Queen of Basketball won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film.

Although Harris never appeared in an NBA game, her importance to basketball history is far greater than her unusual draft selection.

She was a three-time national champion, an Olympic silver medalist, the scorer of the first basket in women's Olympic basketball history and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Her achievements helped establish women's basketball as a sport worthy of national recognition.

Today, Harris is remembered as one of the greatest centers in women's basketball history and one of the pioneers who helped create opportunities for the generations that followed.

• Three-time AIAW national champion at Delta State (1975, 1976, 1977).
• Three-time AIAW national tournament Most Valuable Player.
• Three-time Kodak All-American.
• 1975 Pan American Games gold medalist.
• 1976 Olympic silver medalist.
• Scored the first basket in women's Olympic basketball history.
• 1977 Honda Sports Award winner for basketball.
• 1977 Broderick Cup winner as the nation's outstanding female collegiate athlete.
• Selected 137th overall by the New Orleans Jazz in the 1977 NBA Draft.
• First woman officially drafted by an NBA team.
• Played professionally for the Houston Angels.
• Inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
• Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.
• Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
• Subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Queen of Basketball.

• Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame - Lusia Harris-Stewart
• Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame - Lusia Harris-Stewart
• Delta State University - Remembering Lusia Harris-Stewart
• NBAHoopsOnline - 1977 NBA Draft
• NBAHoopsOnline - Bruce Jenner's Unusual NBA Draft Selection
• NBAHoopsOnline - New Orleans and Utah Jazz History

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