Harris thought she had accomplished everything she needed to, everything a woman in the 1970s could accomplish in basketball. She wouldn’t really have a chance against the men. “I didn’t think I was good enough,” she said. “Competing against a woman, yes. It’s a different story competing against a man. So, I decided not to go. “I said no to the NBA.”
Lusia Harris Rumors
Eight years before, the San Francisco Warriors had selected Denise Long in the 1969 NBA Draft, but the league voided it. Therefore, when the Minter City, Miss., native was picked on June 10, 1977, she went into the history books as the first and only woman ever drafted by an NBA team. On Tuesday, Delta State announced that she died at 66. “We are deeply saddened to share the news that our angel, matriarch, sister, mother, grandmother, Olympic medalist, The Queen of Basketball, Lusia Harris has passed away unexpectedly today in Mississippi,” Harris-Stewart’s family said in a statement. “The recent months brought Ms. Harris great joy, including the news of the upcoming wedding of her youngest son and the outpouring of recognition received by a recent documentary that brought worldwide attention to her story.”
Lusia Harris (1955-2022)
Groundbreaking basketball star Lusia Harris, the only woman to be drafted by an NBA team, has died at the age of 66. Harris’ family announced Tuesday that she died unexpectedly earlier in the day in her home state of Mississippi.
Harris was selected by the New Orleans Jazz in the seventh round (137th overall) of the 1977 NBA draft. However, she declined to try out for the team. Only later was it revealed that she was pregnant at the time.
