Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange says she is deeply saddened by the passing of Simone Edwards, who she said “was perhaps Jamaica’s best female basketballer of all time.”

Edwards died Thursday at home in Florida in the United States at age 49.

READ: Simone Edwards, first Jamaican to play in WNBA, dies at 49

“The pain is no less although we knew that Simone was suffering with cancer from 2021,” Grange said in a statement.

“We are so proud of the fact that she made her name at home and abroad, creating history as the first Jamaican to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the US. That she was on the ‘Seattle Storm’ team that won the WNBA championship in 2004, made us even prouder,” Grange continued. “We will always be grateful too that Simone coached Jamaica’s women national basketball team to the Caribbean championship in 2014 and we laud the willingness she displayed to give back to female basketball in Jamaica.”

Grange added that Edwards was fully deserving of national honours, having been conferred with the Order of Distinction in 2017.

“Jamaica and the basketball fraternity have lost a super athlete with the passing of Simone Edwards and I extend sincerest condolences to her family, relatives, former team members, colleagues and friends.

“The ‘Jamaican Hurricane’, as she was called, whipped up a storm on the basketball courts and the memories will linger,” Grange said.