Will Smith (center), Saniyya Sidney (right) and Demi Singleton in King Richard Photo: VCG

It was a big night for sport at the Oscars last Sunday where NBA legends Stephen Curry and Shaquille O'Neal added more trophies to their cabinet.

The duo won Academy Awards for Best Short Subject Documentary for their roles as executive producers on The Queen of Basketball.

The film uses its 22-minute runtime to tell the story of Lusia Harris, the first woman to be drafted by an NBA team and the first woman to score a basket at the Olympics. It also ensured that O'Neal joined former teammate Kobe Bryant in winning an Oscar.

"If there is anyone out there that still doubts whether there's an audience for female athletes and questions whether their stories are valuable or entertaining or important … let this Academy Award be the answer," director Ben Proudfoot said at the ceremony.

Proudfoot is right. He educated O'Neal after all. "I didn't know who she was at first," O'Neal told the media in March. Now, thanks to the Oscar win, many people will know who Harris is.

It was not the only sporting connection at the Oscars where Will Smith finally won the Best Actor category.

Smith, who played Richard Willams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams, in King Richard stole headlines for reasons other than winning the elusive best actor award at the third time of asking.

The first time he did so was another sporting biopic, for his role as Muhammad Ali in Ali in 2001 and he also missed out in 2006 for the Pursuit of Happyness. Smith's role in another sports-based movie Concussion, where he played a doctor investigating the link between the NFL and brain injuries, was completely overlooked by the Academy.

"It is terrifying when you play a real person that is still alive, and you know that they're going to see it," Smith had told Jimmy Fallon in November of playing Williams but the 53-year-old was lauded for his performance of the man who mapped out the success of his daughters before they were even born.

Going into the Oscars, Smith had already won other major film awards for his portrayal of Williams - the Critics Choice Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Williams was not involved in the film but his tennis star daughters were. Smith thanked them in his rambling acceptance speech.

"It's like, I want to be a vessel for love," Smith said. "I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena - I just spit, I hope they didn't see that on TV - I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena and the entire Williams family for entrusting me with your story."

Smith - who had slapped presenter Chris Rock after bursting on stage to remonstrate with the comedian - won the only Oscar for King Richard, though the sporting biopic was up for six Oscars: best picture, best actor, best film editing, best supporting actress, best original screenplay and best original song.

Long line

King Richard and The Queen of Basketball are the latest in a long line of sports films to have found success at the Oscars.

It all started with The Champ in 1931, winning the Best Original Story and Best Actor awards, to take home half of its four nominations. Some 11 years later The Pride of the Yankees was nominate for 11 awards, though the Gary Cooper-starring story of New York Yankees star Lou Gehrig's battle with illness only won for Best Editing.

Pool-themed The Hustler racked up nine nominations, but took home Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White in 1961, while boxing feature Rocky made a star of Sylvester Stallone even if he - like Paul Newman in The Hustler some 15 years before him - missed out on the Best Actress ­Oscar. 

Rocky won for Best Picture and and Best Film Editing, while John G. Avildsen took the gong for Best Director.

The 1970s was a boom time for sports films to be among the best in the industry as proved by ­Heaven Can Wait knocking on the door in 1978 just two years after Rocky. The film, which told the story of a Los Angeles Rams quarterback who died early and is sent back to earth, picked up a very creditable nine nominations. It won for Best Art Direction.

Just a year later the amateur bicycle race-based feature Breaking Away was up for four Oscars, taking the title for Best Original Screenplay, while boxing biopic was in the mix the year after that in 1980.

Robert DeNiro earned a Best Actor win for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the Martin Scorcese directed film Raging Bull, which has gone on to be regarded as a classic.

Another year later it was Chariots of Fire that represented the sports world at the Oscars - it won Best Picture, 50 years after The Champ had and also Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score.

Much like the gap between The Hustler and Rocky, there was then 15-years of no sporting success at the Oscars until Tom Cruise's turn as a sports agent in Jerry Maguire which was among the nominations at the 1996 awards. Cruise missed out as Best Actor but Cuba Gooding Jr won the Best Supporting Actor category.

Boxing has been a great source of success for sporting films and Million Dollar Baby packed a punch at the 2004 awards. It won Best Picture, while Clint Eastwood took Best Director and Morgan Freeman took Best Supporting Actor.

American football film The Blind Side won Sandra Bullock a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2010 for playing the adoptive mother of a high school football star - while the real life subject of the film, Michael Oher, won a Super Bowl two years later.

A year later The Fighter won two of its seven nominations - Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories, which was the last sports-film Oscar before Bryant's Dear Basketball in 2017 until last Sunday night.