The Queen of Basketball: When the N.B.A. Officially Drafted a Woman | ‘Almost Famous’ by Op-Docs

As a child growing up in rural Mississippi, Lusia “Lucy” Harris often stayed up past her bedtime watching her favorite N.B.A. players, dreaming of one day playing on the same courts. Reaching 6 feet 3 inches by the time she was in high school, Harris was often called “long and tall and that’s all” by her classmates — but she knew her height would be an asset on the court. And she wasn’t just tall enough to play the game. She was a rare talent who would go on to be a three-time national college champion and an Olympic silver medalist, making her a national sensation by the time she finished her college career.

For an electrifying young basketball player on the national stage, success often comes with a lucrative professional contract and brand deals — but Harris’s moment came in the 1970s, decades before the W.N.B.A. was founded, when few opportunities were available to female athletes interested in pursuing a professional career. In Ben Proudfoot’s “The Queen of Basketball,” Harris tells the story of what happens when an unstoppable talent runs out of games to win.

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Credits
Director: Ben Proudfoot
Editors: Stephanie Owens, Ben Proudfoot
Featuring: Lusia “Lucy” Harris
Producers: Elizabeth Brooke, Abby Lynn Kang Davis, Gabriel Berk Godoi, Ben Proudfoot, Brandon Somerhalder, Sarah Stewart
Cinematographer: Brandon Somerhalder
Original Score Composed and Orchestrated by: Nicholas Jacobson-Larson
Co-Producer: Jeremy Lambert
Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer: Sean Higgins
Colorist: Stephen Derluguian
Post Production Supervisors: Dillon Brown, Laura Carlson
Additional Editing: Mónica Salazar, Nick Garnham Wright
Assistant Editor: Cody Wilson
Sound Effects Editor: T.J. Jacques
Second Unit Cinematographer: Haley Watson
Additional Music and Mixing: Erik Kertes
Musicians: Loren Battley, Nicholas Jacobson-Larson, Erik Kertes, Garth Neustadter
Archival Digitization: Hannah Auslander, Melanie Lim
Archival Research: Laura Jespersen
Story Reported by: Haley Watson

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Op-Docs is the New York Times’ award-winning series of short documentaries by independent filmmakers. Learn more about Op-Docs and how to submit to the series. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@NYTopinion).