Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry and fellow basketball star Shaquille O’Neal can add an Oscar to their accolades now as “The Queen of Basketball” won for best documentary short at the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday, March 27.

The two NBA greats, who now join the late Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant among basketball players with an Oscar, are among the executive producers and top promoters of the 22-minute documentary that tells the story of Lusia Harris, the woman who scored the first basket in the Olympic category of women’s basketball and was the first woman drafted by an NBA team.

The film, directed by Ben Proudfoot, should go a long way toward reviving the memory of this pioneer in women’s basketball, who died Jan. 18 at age 66.

“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,” Proudfoot said during his acceptance speech onstage at the Dolby Theatre, before pointing up to Harris’ family in the audience.

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Harris, who played center, was part of the team that represented the United States at the 1976 summer Olympics in Montreal. The American team won the Silver that year, with the Soviet Union winning the Gold.

Harris was the first and last woman officially drafted to play on an NBA team, the New Orleans Jazz. Harris never played with the NBA or any other male team — she was pregnant at the time of the draft — but she did play women’s basketball with the Houston Angels (of the Women’s Professional Basketball League) during the 1979-80 season.

Harris, like O’Neal, is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. But before the film project, the four-time NBA champion and 15-time All-Star wasn’t familiar with her story.

“I didn’t know who she was at first,” O’Neal said earlier this month.

But the film and the involvement of O’Neal and Curry — the Warriors star wore sneakers earlier this month emblazoned with the phrase “Queen Lucy” on them — helped her story be told more and more.

Proudfoot also used the winning Oscar moment to call for the release of two-time Olympic gold medalist and top women’s player Brittney Griner, who has been jailed in Russia. Griner was detained after arriving at a Moscow airport, reportedly in mid-February, after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis.

Griner may face up to 10 years in prison under Russian law.

“Bring Brittney Griner home,” Proudfoot said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.