Denise Long Rife

Denise Long Rife (born Denise Long; 1951) is an American former basketball player. She was the first woman drafted by an NBA team when San Francisco Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli picked her in the 13th round in the 1969 NBA draft but the selection was voided.

Early life Rife was born in Whitten, Iowa, a town of fewer than 200 inhabitants, where her mother was the postmaster. She scored over a hundred points in a single game three times, and in her senior year, she averaged over 69 points per game. The six-on-six format of the time allowed Rife to score 6,250 points, breaking the national score record.

Basketball career

NBA draft Rife was the first woman drafted by a National Basketball Association (NBA) team, although NBA Commissioner Walter Kennedy vetoed the pick on grounds that, at the time, the league did not draft players straight from high school—nor women. When she was contacted, Long initially believed that she was being drafted by the military to fight in the Vietnam War. Long would also be the second person behind Elgin Baylor in 1956 to be considered an ineligible selection by the NBA (though in Baylor's case, he would later be considered a valid pick by the Lakers in 1958).

San Francisco Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli picked her in the 13th round of the 1969 NBA draft, but she played for a women's team—the "Warrior Girls Basketball League"

Basketball career According to the Warriors' YouTube channel, she was picked to be the league's star. She was 19 years old, 5'11" tall, and a graduate of Union-Whitten High School, where her class had only 34 students enrolled; the opportunity to go to San Francisco was irresistible. In one game, Rife recalled, a forward ended up guarding her because all of the guards on the opposition's team had fouled out trying to keep her from scoring. The 1968 championship game that her team won is available on YouTube. Long was honored by the Warriors in a halftime ceremony in 2018 on the anniversary of her draft.

Personal life While enrolled at the University of Iowa, Long received unwanted advances and obscene phone calls due to her fame. Long married David Sturdy, a basketball fanatic whom she met in 1973. Four years later, they split up, with Long citing Sturdy's interest in basketball while Long was actively attempting to distance herself from the sport. In 1981, she married Lee Andre, who had no knowledge of Long's career in basketball before the marriage.