As a coach at Delta State, Lusia Harris led the team to three consecutive AIAW championships from 1975 to 1977. At Delta State, women’s basketball was added to the Olympics in 1976, the first time it had been done so. Lusia Harris was chosen to be on the team. She was the first woman to score a basket in the first game of the competition, making her the first woman to do so. The US won silver that year.
The New Orleans Jazz, who started playing in 1974 and later moved to Utah, picked her in the seventh round of the 1977 NBA draft. She went to college and then played for the NBA’s New Orleans Jazz.
When the San Francisco Warriors picked Denise Long in 1969, they were the only team to pick a woman. The pick was then thrown out by the league, making Lusia Harris the only woman who has been officially drafted to date.
Yet, Lusia Harris turned down the offer from the Jazz because he wanted to start a family first, not play for them.
During “The Queen of Basketball,” a short film about her life and career, she said, “I thought it was a publicity stunt, and I didn’t think I was good enough.” So I didn’t go to the party. The NBA isn’t for me: ”
“People who didn’t go to the NBA, I don’t feel bad about it. No, not even a little bit, “she said. ”
Born in Mississippi, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. He also made the first class of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, which was made up of only women.
Lusia Harris still holds the Delta State records for points (2,891) and rebounds (1,662), the school says.
She had a lot of good things happen in the last few months, such as the news that her youngest son is getting married and that a recent documentary brought her story to the world’s attention.
As the first woman to score a basket in an Olympic game, she brought a lot of light to her community, Mississippi, and the world. She also made a lot of people happy by giving back to her community.
