Zaila Avant-Garde made history Tuesday night when she correctly spelled murraya to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, but there are a lot more pieces to that puzzle.
The 14-year-old, from Harvey, Thursday evening became the first black contestant -- as well as the first from Louisiana -- to win the spelling bee. And as the 8th grader thrust her name squarely into the national spotlight, another of her finely honed abilities drew eyeballs online: what she can do with a basketball.
Following up on a congratulatory tweet from the WNBA, the National Basketball Association was quick to point out that Avant-Garde possesses quite the collection of hoop skills. The league shared a video of one of Avant-Garde's drills, filmed at a public, covered court.
The 75-second video had been viewed close to 2 million times as of Friday morning.
Another video of Avant-Garde's 6th and 7th grade highlights, originally shared in October, 2020, is pinned atop her Twitter profile and has been viewed more than a million times.
And her spelling bee victory isn't even the first time she's made history. In January of this year, Avant-Garde was added to the Guinness Book of World Records for dribbling six basketballs simultaneously, the most ever recorded. She also owns the record for most bounce juggles in one minute (four basketballs), set in 2020, and the previous year set the record for most basketball bounces in 30 seconds.
And if you've ever wondered whether it's possible to dribble while riding a unicycle, she's got that covered, too.
Avant-Garde has said she hopes to attend Harvard and a professional career with with her basketball skills. She's hopeful to one day play in the WNBA, or be an NBA coach.
“Basketball, I'm not just playing it. I'm really trying to go somewhere with it. Basketball is what I do,” Avant-Garde said in a report from the Charlotte Observer. “Spelling is really a side thing I do. It's like a little hors d'ouevre. But basketball's like the main dish.”
Among the many congratulating Avant-Garde for her victory was Swin Cash, the New Orleans Pelicans' Vice President of Basketball Operations and Team Development. Cash was a star at powerhouse UConn, winning xxxx before going on to be the No. xxx selection in the xxxx WNBA draft and played 15 years for five teams.
Cash tweeted that she hopes to get in touch with Avant-Garde's family to set up a congratulations dinner.