Reginald “Reggie” Harding was an American professional basketball center from Detroit. A 7-foot player, he became the first high-school graduate selected in the NBA draft without having played college basketball. He played for the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls in the NBA and the Indiana Pacers in the ABA before his career was curtailed by legal and personal problems.
Background
Harding was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1942 and grew up in the city during the formative period of professional basketball in the United States. He attended Eastern High School, where his height and ability made him one of Detroit's prominent scholastic basketball players. He graduated in 1961 and was later recognized as a Parade All-American.
Detroit's public-school basketball system provided a major local setting for Harding's early development. He did not attend college, an unusual path for a leading basketball prospect in an era when NBA eligibility generally followed a period of collegiate competition. His direct movement from high school into professional basketball consequently became a defining feature of his career.
Education
Harding graduated from Eastern High School in Detroit in 1961. The school was part of the Detroit public-school system, whose basketball programs had produced numerous prominent players and served as an important training ground for the city's professional talent.
He did not attend a university or college. His absence of collegiate play was central to the eligibility dispute surrounding his selection by the Detroit Pistons and made him an early example of a player entering professional basketball without a college career.
Career
Harding began his professional career in 1962 with the Toledo Tartans of the Midwest Professional Basketball League and later played for the Holland Oilers. These assignments allowed him to continue playing while the NBA considered the eligibility implications of his high-school background.
The Detroit Pistons selected Harding in the fourth round of the 1962 NBA draft and again in the sixth round of the 1963 draft. The second selection followed the league's decision to retain Detroit's rights to him while delaying his NBA entry. He made his NBA debut during the 1963–1964 season and played four NBA seasons with the Pistons and Chicago Bulls.
As a 7-foot center, Harding averaged approximately 9 points and 9 rebounds per game over his NBA career. His best documented NBA season came in 1964–1965, when he averaged about 11.6 points and 12.0 rebounds for Detroit. He joined the Chicago Bulls in 1967 and later played for the Trenton Colonials before appearing for the Indiana Pacers of the American Basketball Association in 1968. With Indiana, he averaged 13.4 points and 13.4 rebounds in 25 games.
Harding's playing career was interrupted by legal and personal difficulties. He spent time in prison after a concealed-weapons conviction, struggled with drug addiction, and was associated in contemporary accounts with threats against people connected with professional basketball. After his release, he sought a return to the NBA but did not resume his professional career. He was shot in Detroit and died on September 2, 1972.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Harding was listed at 7 feet tall and played center.
Connections
Contemporary accounts described Harding as married and the father of two children. His birth mother, Lillie Mae Thomas, was shot and killed shortly before Harding's own death in 1972.
Peter Benjaminson's 2008 biography of Florence Ballard reported an allegation that Harding sexually assaulted Ballard at knifepoint in 1960. The allegation concerns Harding's pre-professional years and is presented as a reported claim rather than an adjudicated finding.
