New Orleans Nets
February 23, 2018
The New Orleans Nets were a six-person, co-ed professional tennis team that played out of the Superdome for the final season of the original World Team Tennis (WTT) league during the summer of 1978. The team also used the name “Sunbelt Nets”. The Nets roster included NBA star John Lucas, playing WTT during his summer break from the Houston Rockets and Lucas’ mixed-doubles partner, Dr. Renee Richards. Richards was a 43-year old trans woman whose efforts to play in the women’s field at the 1976 and 1977 U.S. Open tournaments became a cultural flashpoint during the late 1970’s.
