Steph Curry has joined Shaquille O’Neal as an executive producer for The Queen of Basketball, the documentary about Lusia “Lucy” Harris, The Hollywood Reporter writes. The project is currently nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2022 Oscars and previously won the Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Short.
“We’re honored to join the talented team behind The Queen of Basketball and play a role in uplifting the story of the trailblazing Lucy Harris,” Curry and Erick Peyton of Unanimous Media said in a statement. “Lucy, a true pioneer in the game of basketball and an inspiration for many, deserves to be recognized for her achievements. Through this compelling short subject documentary, her legacy will continue to live on and impact audiences all over the world.”
“Stephen Curry is one of the NBA’s most iconic players whose voice speaks volumes on and off the court,” O’Neal added. “I’m thrilled to have him join the team to help immortalize Lusia Harris, aka ‘The Queen of Basketball.’”
Harris, who passed away this January, was the first and only woman ever to be officially drafted by the NBA. However, she ultimately played for the Houston Angels with the WNBA. In 1992, she became the first Black woman inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Internationally, the 66-year-old played for the U.S. team at the 1976 Olympic Games, the first-ever Olympic women’s basketball tournament, where she won the silver medal.
“The family of Lusia Harris-Stewart would like to thank Steph Curry for joining The Queen of Basketball as an executive producer,” her family said in a statement. “We know our mom would have been overjoyed with his addition as she loved to watch Steph ‘shoot the lights out of that ball.’ We are grateful to Steph for believing in the project and helping to ensure her story is never forgotten. Long live the Queen.”
“From the beginning, our hope for The Queen of Basketball was to help close the gap between Ms. Harris’ significance and how many people know her name — and in so doing draw everyone’s attention to the existing inequities in the game,” director Ben Proudfoot added. “Ms. Harris’ soft-spoken testimony has echoed and amplified to what is now a veritable movement led by two of the most dominant and well-respected basketball players of all time. I am so grateful to partner with Stephen, Erick, Brian and the Unanimous team to bring Lucy’s story to an even wider audience in the months ahead.”
The Queen of Basketball, a New York Times Op-Docs film, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and is currently available to stream on The New York Times’ website and YouTube channel.