By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The 94th Academy Awards winners included Stephen Curry and Shaquille O’Neal, among the executive producers of the Queen of Basketball, a documentary about Lusia Harris putting the spotlight on female athletes.
Harris was the first woman to be officially drafted by an NBA team and scored the first basket in Olympic women’s history. She was selected by the New Orleans Jazz with the 137th overall pick of the 1977 draft coming out of Delta State but declined to try out. It was later revealed that she was pregnant at the time. Despite never playing in the NBA and her professional career being limited to a stint in the WBL with the Houston Angels during the 1979-80 season, undoubtedly was a pioneer for women’s basketball and inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. She passed away last January, shortly before her 67th birthday.
The 22-minute film about Harris won the Oscar for Best Documentary (Short Subject), as announced during the award ceremony in Los Angeles Sunday.
“If there is anyone out there that still doubts whether there’s an audience for female athletes and questions whether their stories are valuable or entertaining or important … let this Academy Award be the answer,” said director Ben Proudfoot and also shared a message on Brittney Griner, who remains jailed in Russia, “President Biden, bring Brittney Griner home.”
Late Kobe Bryant had won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, four years ago. The film was titled “Dear Basketball”. Coming to pick up where he left off, Curry and O’Neal became Oscars winners as well.
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