The Queen of Basketball

Smile for a Saturday

As America grapples with the likely end of Roe v. Wade, we are forced to have an honest conversation about the rights of women in American society. At the founding of this nation, under the banner of “all men are created equal” (which obviously did not include the millions of enslaved men), women were, from the beginning, second-class citizens. 

The women of my mother’s generation were born into a nation that did not allow them to vote. And when I was a child, the prospects for women in most fields of work were minimal, at best. In school, we boys were told that we could grow up to be anything, including president of the United States. My female classmates entertained no such fantasies. 

Looking around at America today, we can see we have made great progress. From academia to elected offices to corporate boardrooms to the military, domains that were once almost exclusively male are no longer so. And women aren’t only present, they lead. This country is immeasurably stronger as a result. It would be even stronger if the gender balance were actually equal. 

But the likely action of those five justices on the court, including one woman, now thrusts into jeopardy 50 years of progress toward women having autonomy over their own bodies and lives. No matter how far we have come, the place for women in America, even regarding their basic rights, is precarious. 

With this ominous truth in mind, I wanted to focus today on a specific arena (pun reluctantly intended): the basketball court. This is the time of year when hoops fans are in a tizzy; not only are the NBA playoffs in full swing, but late spring also marks the beginning of the WNBA season. The league was founded more than 25 years ago, finally giving women stars from the college game a platform to showcase their talents, and earn a living, in the United States. 

Prior to that point, women basketball players who wanted to go pro had to go overseas. Even today, many WNBA players continue to augment their incomes (which pale next to NBA salaries) by playing in foreign countries. The arrest of Brittney Griner in Russia has spotlighted this practice. Griner  played in a league there and was caught when Russia invaded Ukraine. The United States government has officially labeled the situation a “wrongful detainment.”

The WNBA has been growing in popularity in recent years and is thus a symbol of greater opportunities for women, as well as the hurdles that still remain. Nevertheless, young girls now can imagine themselves in roles that would have seemed like hopeless dreams even a few decades ago. We must commit to equality and push back against those who seek to undermine progress. And we should acknowledge that getting to where we are today has required the sacrifice and struggle of those who helped pave the path forward. 

And this leads us to our Smile for a Saturday feature today. It is a short film of one such trailblazer who is only belatedly getting her due. Lusia Harris was one of the greatest female basketball players of all time, but she starred during an era when there were very few options for such a talent. Her story was captured in "The Queen of Basketball," which won this year’s Academy Award for best documentary short. Considering our current cultural moment, it seemed a good choice for this week. We suspect, if you are anything like us, your eyes might grow misty in watching this story, but the indomitable spirit of its central voice will hopefully bring a smile to your face, as it did to ours. 

In a sad postscript, Ms. Harris did not live to see her story win at the Oscars. She passed away two months prior to the ceremony at the age of 66. May she rest in peace and her spirit live on.