An Oscar-winning documentary has a familiar name on its roster: NBA star Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry has played on championship-winning basketball teams, including the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Now the 34-year-old from Charlotte can count himself as part of an Oscar-winning one.
Curry, a standout at Charlotte Christian and Davidson, joined NBA great Shaquille O’Neal as executive producers for “The Queen of Basketball,” a 22-minute documentary about women’s basketball pioneer, Lusia “Lucy” Harris. The film won an Academy Award for best documentary short subject Sunday night in Los Angeles.
Curry’s role was to help publicize the documentary through his production company, Unanimous Media, according to The Mercury News. He joined the project after it premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, the Merc reported.
Harris, a center, led Delta State to three straight women’s college basketball titles in the 1970s. She also scored the first points in a women’s Olympic basketball tournament and won a silver medal with the U.S. team at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal.
In 1977, she became the first woman drafted by an NBA team when the New Orleans Jazz selected her in the seventh round.
“If there is anyone out there who doubts that there is an audience for female athletes and questions whether their stories are valuable or entertaining or important, let this Academy Award be the answer,” director Ben Proudfoot said during his acceptance speech Sunday night.
Harris never played in the NBA or with any men’s team, but she did play with the Houston Angels of the Women’s Professional Basketball League during the 1979-80 season.
She was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999. Harris died Jan. 18 at age 66.
Curry and O’Neal follow in the footsteps of Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, who won an Oscar in 2018 for the animated short film “Dear Basketball,” his farewell to the game. Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter crash in January 2020.
It’s unlikely the NBA stars will receive an Oscar statuette because executive producers are not eligible to be nominees, according to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, Curry wore sneakers with the phrase “Queen Lucy” on them in honor of Harris.
Watch ‘The Queen of Basketball’
“The Queen of Basketball,” which was produced by Breakwater Studios and The New York Times, is available to stream on:
▪ Vimeo: vimeo.com/580833148
▪ YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPFkcoTfr7g
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 1:29 PM.
