There is nothing new about the story of Lusia “Lucy” Harris — except us. The Mississippi native already became the first woman to score a basket in the Olympics, in 1976. She already became the first and only woman drafted into the NBA, in 1977. She already became the first Black woman enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 1992. Before her story was Oscar-nominated, it was already legendary. We just didn’t know it.
“I don’t know anything about basketball, but this is a preeminent and singular person. She should be the most famous female basketball player ever. Why isn’t she?” The Queen of Basketball director Ben Proudfoot tells Mic. “Honestly, my hunch was, ‘This is an African American woman in the Mississippi delta in the 1970s, that might have something to do with it.”
