Joyce Walker
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women’s Basketball | ||
Representing  United States
| ||
Jones Cup
| ||
 |
1981 Taipei |
Team competition |
World University Games
| ||
 |
1983 Edmonton | Team competition
|
Joyce Walker (born July 1, 1962)[1][2] is an American women's basketball player who is most renowned for being the third woman to join the Harlem Globetrotters, following fellow LSU All American, Jackie White.
Walker was a basketball star at
Garfield High School in Seattle in the late 1970s. As a senior in 1980, she averaged over 35 points per game, and set still-existent Washington state
tournament records of 40 points, 17 field goals (twice), and 33 field goal attempts in a single game en route to a state championship, netting the still-existent single tournament records of 96 field goals attempted, 49 field goals made, 114 points scored, and 38 average points per game as well. When combined with her performance in the 1977 tournament she set the still-existent record career tournament average of 26.8 points per game. Her dominance landed her a place in the National High School Hall of Fame and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Hall of Fame. She is considered by many to be the best female basketball player from Washington.
In the early 1980s, Walker played at
All-American, she was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Louisiana State University Athletic Hall of Fame
in 2017.
After stints playing professional basketball in Italy and Germany, Walker joined the Globetrotters, following the trailblazing Woodard and White by a mere three weeks.
She coached the girls' basketball team at
Roosevelt High School team are partially chronicled (with interviews) in the 2005 documentary film The Heart of the Game. The Garfield team won the state 4A championship in 2005. She now coaches the JV team and is the assistant varsity coach at Kingston High School in Kingston, Washington
.
LSU statistics
Source[3]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | GP | Points | FG% | FT% | RPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980-81 | LSU | 30 | 621 | 56.6% | 62.6% | 5.2 | 20.7 |
| 1981-82 | LSU | 30 | 747 | 57.6% | 67.7% | 4.5 | 24.9 |
| 1982-83 | LSU | 27 | 744 | 57.8% | 74.5% | 6.9 | 27.6 |
| 1983-84 | LSU | 30 | 794 | 53.3% | 81.2% | 4.0 | 26.5 |
| TOTALS | 117 | 2906 | 56.2% | 72.9% | 5.1 | 24.8 |
USA Basketball
Walker was named to represent the US at the 1981
Taipei, Taiwan. The team won seven of eight games to win the silver medal for the event. Walker led the team in scoring with 21.0 points per game and earned a spot on the All-Tournament team.[1]
Walker played on the 1983
World University games team, coached by Jill Hutchison. She was the leading scorer for the team, averaging almost 14 points per game, and helped the team win the gold medal.[2]
Personal life
Multiple relatives of Joyce have established themselves in the sports industry. Her Sister Shirley Wroten ran track for the
NBA player who played college basketball at Washington, and Joyce's brother in law, Tony Wroten Sr., played football for the University of Washington and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
.
References
- ^ a b "1981 WOMEN'S R. WILLIAM JONES CUP". USA Basketball. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
age 19 in July 1981
- ^ a b "Twelfth World University Games -- 1983". USA Basketball. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
age 21 in July 1983
- ^ "LSU Media Guide" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 18, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.