Queen of Basketball documentary wins Oscar at 94th Academy Awards

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - The Queen of Basketball – a documentary that narrates an NBA legend's career – has won an Oscar at the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday.

The Academy confirmed on Twitter that the 2021 US documentary directed by Ben Proudfoot about the game's woman pioneer Lusia Harris was named the winner of the Academy Award for short subject documentary.

The Queen of Basketball was produced by former NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal and Golden State Warriors' playmaker guard Stephen Curry.

Harris, the only woman to be drafted by the NBA team New Orleans Jazz, passed away on Jan. 18, 2022. She was 66.

The New Orleans Jazz moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979 to change their name to the Utah Jazz, which is an active NBA franchise from the Western Conference.

Harris was drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in the seventh round in 1977, but she did not try out for the team because she was pregnant at the time.

The 1976 Olympic silver medalist became the first Black woman inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. She later entered the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.

In 2018, NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in 2020, won an Oscar for the film "Dear Basketball" in the animated short category.

The film depicts Bryant as a child, dreaming of becoming a basketball champion and an NBA superstar.