Jordan Lewis joined an exclusive group of Orlando area women’s basketball players Monday when she was selected in the annual WNBA Draft.
Lewis doesn’t have much time to celebrate, though, as the 2016 Lake Highland Prep graduate reports to the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday in preparation to start training camp this weekend.
Connecticut chose Lewis with the 24th overall pick in the second round. She averaged 11.8 points, 5.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds as a Big 12 First Team selection in her only season as a graduate transfer at Baylor.
Lewis, who previously spent five seasons at Alabama, watched the draft with family in Orlando. She returned Tuesday to Texas, where she spoke by phone with the Orlando Sentinel.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” Lewis said. “After going off to Alabama, I didn’t know what my future would hold at the time. I thought I’d just play in college and then be done with it, so just to even be considered for the draft, and then to be drafted, just seems surreal to me.”
Lewis joins a short list of area WNBA draftees that include Edgewater’s Tari Phillips and Alexis Prince, and Krystal Thomas-Smith of The First Academy.
Phillips was drafted out of UCF with the eighth overall pick by the Orlando Miracle in 1999 before going on to make four All-Star Game appearances with the New York Liberty.
Prince, who also played at Baylor, was drafted No. 29 overall in 2017 by the Phoenix Mercury. Thomas-Smith, now a head coach at Foundation Academy, was drafted 36th overall out of Duke in 2011 by the Seattle Storm.
“It was super emotional for me because of all the hard work I’ve put in,” Lewis said of having her name called. “There’s been so many great players to come out of Lake Highland and from Central Florida. To even be considered among them makes it feel like the hard work is finally paying off.”
Lewis led Lake Highland to back-to-back state championships and was named Orlando Sentinel girls basketball player of the year for her senior year. She became an immediate contributor as a freshman at Alabama, where she eventually earned All-SEC Second Team honors in 2021.
“This shows that you don’t have to have all the accolades and take the same path as everybody else,” Lewis said. “It seems most people think you have to come out of high school as a McDonald’s All-American or a 5-star [recruit] and go to the best school. But you can have your own journey. You can still get there if you continue to work hard and try to do everything that you can.”
This article originally appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email J.C. Carnahan at jcarnahan@orlandosentinel.com.