Lusia Harris, the only woman officially selected in the draft by an NBA team, died this Tuesday at the age of 66 in his Mississippi native. The player went down in history after being drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in the 1977 seventh round, but did not try out for the team because I was pregnant at the time. The San Francisco Warriors they tried to draft another player, Denise Long, but the League blocked him because he didn’t meet the criteria to be drafted, in part due to his gender.
Harris, moreover, was the author of the first points in the history of women’s basketball in the Olympic Games in the Montreal edition in 1976where he won the medal silver with the United States team. also won three consecutive NCAA titles with the Delta State University in the 1970s. His averages were 25.9 points and 14.4 rebounds and the balance of the team while she was there was 109-6. No one in the history of the institution has exceeded their limits of 2,981 points and 1,662 rebounds. Years after finishing his career, in 1992, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, being the first black woman to achieve that honor.
“We are deeply saddened to share the news that our angel, matriarch, sister, mother, grandmother, Olympic medalist, basketball queen Lusia Harris passed away unexpectedly today in Mississippi,” the family said in a statement. “The past few months have brought Mrs. Harris great joy, including the news of her youngest son’s upcoming wedding and the huge acclaim received for a recent documentary that brought her story to global attention,” the document read.
Harris’s life was the subject of a documentary entitled ‘The Queen of Basketball’, which premiered in 2021. “She will be remembered for her charity, for her accomplishments both on and off the court, and the light she brought to her community, the state of Mississippi, her country as the first woman to score a basket in the Olympics, and women who play basketball around the world”, ends the family statement.
.
