The pro basketball world might not have known exactly who Kamiah Smalls was prior to Friday’s WNBA Draft - by night’s end that had changed.

Smalls was watching the draft, broadcast on ESPN, in Harrisonburg with friends while FaceTiming with her family in Philadelphia.

When Smalls’ name came up on the TV screen as the No. 28 pick to the Indiana Fever, those friends caught the reaction on video — an unbridled scream from the James Madison senior who lacked words, but not emotion in the moment.

“I loved the reaction,” said Fever coach Marianne Stanley, whose coaching career began at ODU. “That just brought a smile to my face.”

She wasn’t alone. JMU teammate Lexie Barrier posted the video on Twitter and it soon went viral, gaining retweets from fans and ESPN personalities. Smalls, who wasn’t sure she would even get drafted, appears well on her way to becoming a fan favorite in the basketball-crazy heartland with the journey that has taken her from Philly to JMU and now Indiana.

“I had no expectations going into this,” Smalls said during her first teleconference as a pro. “I was taking a big chance. The mid-major schools, we don’t get a lot of love. I was honestly expecting a training camp contract. I’m not going to lie. In that moment, I didn’t know what to do but scream.”

The path from JMU to the WNBA wasn’t an easy one. A series of unfortunate circumstances — injuries in 2019 and the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 — caused Smalls to miss out on the NCAA Tournament where she might have gained more exposure.

But she also knew achieving her goals was possible with the Dukes, who have churned out a steady stream of pro players, both in the WNBA and abroad.

“That’s what drew me to the school, to be honest,” Smalls said. “I’ve never been the kid who wanted the spotlight. When I was going through this process and looking at schools, my No. 1 thing was I love this game and I love playing. That’s my goal, I want to play and I want to change a program. I thought that JMU fit that.”

Among her inspirations was Tamera Young, who was drafted out of JMU in 2008 and has played in the WNBA the past 12 seasons. Like Smalls, she left James Madison as CAA Player of the Year and a three-time All-CAA selection.

When Young was in Harrisonburg last year to be inducted in the JMU Hall of Fame, Smalls was clearly awestruck.

“TY came from here and she made it happen,” Smalls said. “If she can do it, it is possible. You’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to go out there and give this game your all. If you give it your all, you’ll get it all back.”

Now she’s set to join Young in the WNBA and try to become a difference-maker on a Fever team that just missed out on a playoff spot last season. She should get a chance to play for Stanley, the WNBA Coach of the Year with the Washington Mystics in 2002. Stanley later returned to Washington and was an assistant for the title team last year before being named the Fever coach in late November.

“Nobody has worked harder for that,” JMU coach Sean O’Regan said of Smalls. “She’s ready for this and I couldn’t be happier for her.”