Billie Jean King receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Tennis icon Billie Jean King was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Monday, making her the first woman to receive a star in the Sports Entertainment category.
The 20-time wimbeldon champion was named one of Life Magazine's 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century.
Her friends Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Jamie Lee Curtis spoke about her breaking down barriers in women's sports as significant as her extraordinary success in tennis.
"What I love about Billie Jean is that she use her platform to bring about change when we talk about that battle of the sexes it was more than just you Bobby Riggs was fighting for equal pay for women and all these young ladies who making all these millions and millions of dollars Today should be thanking you for what you did."
Earvin "Magic" Johnson, basketball icon
"And there is not a woman in any professional sport or any LGBTQ plus human being, whose life has not been shaped and helped and supported by this extraordinary woman's talent and her greater contribution in improving the lives of other people on a daily basis."
Jamie Lee Curtis, actress
King says growing up in southern California, she remembers seeing film stars hanging out at the tennis clubs where she played.
"They were regulars and we saw them often. Can you imagine life is a junior tennis player amazing. And now you're kind enough to give me a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just like them so my mother would have loved this. I cannot tell you," King shared.
