View source for Venus Lacy

{{Short description|American basketball player (born 1967)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox basketball biography
| name = Venus Lacy
| image = 
| caption = 
| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|February 9, 1967}}
| birth_place = [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], U.S.
| height = {{convert|6|ft|4|in|abbr=on}}
| headercolor = lightsteelblue
| show-medals = yes
|highlights=
* [[WBCA Player of the Year]] (1990)
* [[Women's Basketball Coaches Association|Kodak]] All-American (1990)
* All-American – [[United States Basketball Writers Association|USBWA]] (1990)
* [[USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year]] (1989)
| medaltemplates =   
{{MedalSport | Women's [[basketball]]}}
{{MedalCountry | the {{USA}} }}
{{MedalOlympics}}
{{MedalGold| [[1996 Summer Olympics|1996 Atlanta]]|[[Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics|Team competition]]}} 
{{MedalCompetition|[[Pan American Games]]}}
{{MedalBronze| [[1991 Pan American Games|1991 Havana]] | [[Basketball at the 1991 Pan American Games|Team]]}} 
}}

'''Venus Lacy''' (some sources give her name as '''Venus Lacey''', born February 9, 1967) is an American former professional [[basketball]] who played as a {{convert|6|ft|4|in|adj=on}} [[center (basketball)|center]]. Born in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]], she won championships at every level, but her American professional career was diminished by injuries she sustained in a 1997 car accident.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/05/sports/venus-lacy-injured-in-car-collision.html|title=Venus Lacy Injured In Car Collision|agency=Associated Press|date=February 5, 1997|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 2, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==High school and college==

A local sports heroine (a city parkway is named after her), Lacy led Chattanooga's [[Brainerd High School (Tennessee)|Brainerd High School]] to the state championship in 1984.

Venus Lacy attended [[Louisiana Tech University]], which she led to the [[NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship]] in [[1988 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament|1988]]. The next year, the Lady Techsters made the [[1989 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989 Final Four]], but lost there to [[Auburn University|Auburn]]. In her Senior year, 1990, Louisiana Tech went undefeated through the regular season, and was ranked #1 in the national polls. That year Lacy was a consensus all-American, and was named the [[WBCA Player of the Year]]. The 1990 team again made the [[1990 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament|Final Four]], where they were once again upset by their nemesis Auburn. Lacy finished her NCAA career with 266 points scored in the tournament, putting her among the all-time top 10 women at the time. Lacy was inducted into the [[Louisiana Tech University Athletic Hall of Fame]] in 2011.

===Louisiana Tech statistics===
Source<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/misc/wbbfinest.pdf|title=Women's Basketball Finest|website=fs.ncaa.org|access-date=October 2, 2017}}</ref>
{{WNBA player statistics legend}}
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Team
!GP
!Points
!FG%
!3P%
!FT%
!RPG
!APG
!SPG
!BPG
!PPG
|-
|1988
|Louisiana Tech
|33
|480
|54.1%
|0%
|55.8%
|9.2
|0.5
|1.2
|1.5
|14.5
|-
|1989
|Louisiana Tech
|'''34'''
|724
|55.2%
|'''75.0%'''
|66.8%
|11.9
|'''0.6'''
|0.9
|1.2
|style="background:#D3D3D3"|21.3°
|-
|1990
|Louisiana Tech
|33
|'''800'''
|'''60.3%'''
|33.3%
|'''73.3%'''
|'''12.7'''
|0.5
|'''2.0'''
|'''2.2'''
|'''24.2'''
|-
|Career
|
|100
|2004
|56.8%
|50.0%
|66.6%
|11.3
|0.6
|1.4
|1.6
|20.0
|}

==USA Basketball==
Lacy played with the USA team at the [[USA Women's Pan American Team|1991 Pan American Games]], held in [[Havana, Cuba]]. The team finished with a record of 4–2, but managed to win the bronze medal. The USA team lost a three point game to Brazil, then responded with wins over Argentina and Cuba, earning a spot in the medal round. The next game was a rematch against Cuba, and this time the team from Cuba won a five point game. The USA beat Canada easily to win the bronze. Lacy averaged 9.4 points per game.<ref name="1991 Pan Am"/>

Lacy was also a member of the gold-medal-winning [[Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics|1996 Olympic team]]. Lacy was the last player added to the USA's 12-woman roster, joining the team midway through its year-long exhibition tour to add size in the paint. The team went an undefeated 52-0 in this unprecedented Olympic preparation year, against a variety of college, all-star and international teams.

==Professional career==

Because the U.S. lacked a women's pro league, Lacy's professional career began overseas, where she played for teams in Greece, Italy and Japan. She led Greece to a European championship in the 1995-1996 season.

Lacy was the first player selected by the [[Seattle Reign (basketball)|Seattle Reign]] in the [[American Basketball League 1996-98|ABL]] Draft on June 19, 1996. From this promising start, her luck seemed to turn sour. Lacy was seriously injured in a car accident on February 4, 1997, and completed her season in Seattle on the injured list. After that year, she was selected by the ABL's expansion [[Long Beach Stingrays]]. Expansion teams typically fare poorly in their first several years, but this was an exception: Long Beach made the ABL Finals in their first and only season, where they lost the championship to the [[Columbus Quest]], two games to three. (After winning the first two games, played in Long Beach due to scheduling conflicts in Columbus, the Stingrays were unable to win in Columbus.) Notwithstanding their on-court success, the Long Beach franchise folded after one year, and next year Lacy was once again drafted by another ABL expansion team, the even shorter-lived [[Nashville Noise]]. Just 15 games into the 1998-1999 season, on December 22, 1998, the ABL itself folded.

No doubt due to her injuries, Lacy went undrafted by any [[WNBA]] team in the special post-ABL consolidation draft. However, midway through the 1999 season, Lacy was picked up by the  [[New York Liberty]] to fill in for their injured All-star center, [[Rebecca Lobo]]. Lacy played in 17 games that year for the Liberty, and in 2 more in 2000, but without much success. She has not played in the WNBA since.

==WNBA career statistics==

===WNBA career statistics===
{{WNBA player statistics legend}}

====Regular season====
{{WNBA player statistics start}}
|-
| align="left" | [[1999 WNBA season|1999]]
| align="left" | [[1999 New York Liberty season|New York]]
|'''17'''||0||6.5||'''41.7'''||0.0||'''80.0'''||1.2||'''0.1'''||'''0.2'''||'''0.2'''||'''0.8'''||1.9
|-
| align="left" | [[2000 WNBA season|2000]]
| align="left" | [[2000 New York Liberty season|New York]]
|2||'''2'''||'''9.0'''||40.0||0.0||50.0||'''2.5'''||0.0||0.0||0.0||1.0||'''3.0'''	
|-
| align="left" | Career
| align="left" | 2 years, 1 team
|19||2||6.8||41.4||0.0||73.7||1.3||0.1||0.2||0.2||0.8||2.0	
{{S-end}}

====Playoffs====
{{WNBA player statistics start}}
|-
| align="left" | [[1999 WNBA Playoffs|1999]]
| align="left" | [[1999 New York Liberty season|New York]]
|1||0||2.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||1.0||0.0
|-
| align="left" | Career
| align="left" | 1 years, 1 team
|1||0||2.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||1.0||0.0
{{S-end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="1991 Pan Am">{{cite web|title=Eleventh Pan American Games -- 1991|date=February 20, 2014|url=http://www.usab.com/history/pan-am-womens/eleventh-pan-american-games-1991.aspx|publisher=USA Basketball|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907195430/http://www.usab.com/history/pan-am-womens/eleventh-pan-american-games-1991.aspx|archive-date=September 7, 2015|url-status=dead|access-date=October 15, 2015}}</ref>

}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061002190854/https://www.chattanooga.gov/ordireso/Resolutions%201996/21046NameChgN.Moore-VenusLaceyPrkwy.txt Chattanooga City Council Resolution dated July 16, 1996 dedicating Venus Lacey (sic) Parkway]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061002193334/https://www.chattanooga.gov/ordireso/Resolutions%201996/21059RecogVenusLaceyOlympicAthleteFmChattanooga.txt Chattanooga City Council Resolution dated Aug. 6, 1996 honoring Venus Lacy]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080708213943/http://www.wnba.com/liberty/stats/stats_1999.html 1999 New York Liberty Statistics]

{{USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year}}
{{1988 Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball navbox}}
{{United States Women Basketball Squad 1996 Summer Olympics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacy, Venus}}
[[Category:1967 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:All-American college women's basketball players]]
[[Category:American women's basketball players]]
[[Category:Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Centers (basketball)]]
[[Category:Long Beach Stingrays players]]
[[Category:Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball players]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Nashville Noise players]]
[[Category:New York Liberty players]]
[[Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball]]
[[Category:Seattle Reign (basketball) players]]
[[Category:Basketball players at the 1991 Pan American Games]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games]]
[[Category:Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in basketball]]
[[Category:21st-century African-American sportswomen]]
[[Category:21st-century American sportswomen]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American sportswomen]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportswomen]]
[[Category:United States women's national basketball team players]]
[[Category:Basketball players from Chattanooga, Tennessee]]