Speaker 1: On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: It's a bit of a trick question. Do you know
Speaker 1: who the very first woman was to be drafted to
Speaker 1: the NBA, Yes, the Men's Professional Basketball Association. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't. I didn't know. Maybe you didn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't know. Maybe you didn't get I didn't. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. Now I say it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a trick question, because if I told you it was
Speaker 1: Lucia Lucy Harris Stewart, you make counter with hold on
Speaker 1: be dot, what about Denise Long back in nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1: So let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we not?
Speaker 1: That's true in nineteen hundred and sixty nine, it was
Speaker 1: a nineteen year old white woman. Her name was Denise Long.
Speaker 1: She was five eleven graduate of Union with in high school,
Speaker 1: and she was the first woman drafted by an NBA team,
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Warriors, in the thirteenth round, But the
Speaker 1: NBA commissioner vetoed the pick on the grounds that at
Speaker 1: the time, the league didn't draft players straight from high school,
Speaker 1: nor did they draft women. The needs Long will O
Speaker 1: for two. Now that's fast track to Lucilla May Harris,
Speaker 1: Lucy what they called her. She was born in February tenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five. She played for Delta State University and
Speaker 1: won three consecutive national championships. The very first United States
Speaker 1: women's national team that participated in the nineteen seventy six Olympics.
Speaker 1: You know, the team that won the silver medal. She
Speaker 1: scored the first basket and she was the first and
Speaker 1: only woman ever officially drafted by the NBA. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven, the New Orleans Jazz selected Harris with the
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty seventh overall pick. Now, I told
Speaker 1: you the San Francisco Warriors had tried to draft the
Speaker 1: knees Long eight years prior in nineteen sixty nine, but
Speaker 1: the league vetoed that selection. They avoided it, so Lucy
Speaker 1: became the first and one woman ever officially drafted in
Speaker 1: the NBA. But she never wanted to play in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Didn't even try out for the Jazz. It would later
Speaker 1: said that she were pregnant at the time and that's
Speaker 1: why she didn't attend Jazz training camp in nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Can you dig that the nineteen seventy seven NBA draft
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Jazz with the one hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: seventh overall pick. Select a woman, a woman that was picked,
Speaker 1: mind you, before thirty three men. But she never wanted
Speaker 1: to play in the NBA, said she never had the
Speaker 1: desire to compete against man. She just wanted to keep
Speaker 1: getting buckets on women because she was a woman. She
Speaker 1: did play professionally for the Houston Angels of the Women's
Speaker 1: Professional Basketball League in the nineteen seventy nine season, but
Speaker 1: that was about it. And there's a twenty two minute
Speaker 1: documentary about her name The Queen of Basketball and guests
Speaker 1: who executive produced it, Shack and Steph Curry, and they
Speaker 1: won Oscars for it just a month before her sixty
Speaker 1: seventh birthday January of two. We lost Lucia May Harris Stewart.
Speaker 1: But when you talk about pioneers of women basketball, let's
Speaker 1: make sure we always mentioned Lucia Harris Stewart, Lucy what
Speaker 1: they called her. Now take that to school or work
Speaker 1: with you, because I didn't know, and maybe you didn't either.