Margo Dydek, Towering Women’s Basketball Center, Dies at 37

Ms. Dydek, a native of Poland, was the No. 1 pick in the 1998 WNBA draft by the Utah Starzz. She also played for San Antonio, Connecticut, and Los Angeles.

BRISBANE, Australia — Margo Dydek, a 7-foot-2 former WNBA player who led the league in blocks nine times, died yesterday at 37 after being placed in a medically induced coma following a heart attack a week ago.

Cathie Roberts, the operations manager for the Northside Wizards, for which Dydek was a coach, confirmed her death to The Associated Press. The team, which is based in Brisbane, is a member of the Queensland Basketball League, an Australian development league.

Dydek, who was pregnant with her third child, had been in a medically induced coma since having a heart attack on May 19 at her home in Brisbane. The child did not survive.

The W.N.B.A.’s tallest player ever, Dydek was often described during her 10 full seasons in the league as the tallest active female basketball player in the world.

She was drafted by the Utah Starzz in 1998, the league’s second season. She played seven seasons with the team, five in Utah and two in Texas after the franchise (renamed the San Antonio Silver Stars) relocated there in 2003.

Traded to the Connecticut Sun in 2005, Dydek spent three seasons with the team, then, after retiring from full-time play, played two games with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2008.

Popular with players and fans, she spoke five languages and was affectionately called Large Marge by teammates.

Dydek, who weighed 223 pounds and had a 7-foot wingspan, was distinguished by a grace and agility that belied her size.

She led the W.N.B.A. in blocked shots nine times, from 1998 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2007, for a career total of 877 in 323 games. In 2001, she was the league leader in defensive rebounds, with 214.

She averaged 10 points per game, for a career total of 3,220. Dydek, who could dunk handily in warm-ups, did not do so in games.

Malgorzata Dydek (pronounced malgo-ZHAH-teh DID-ik) was born in Poland on April 28, 1974, to a lofty family. Her father, Jan, a restaurateur, and her mother, Maria, were both well over 6 feet tall. So were her sisters, Kashka — who in the 1990s spent a season with the Colorado Xplosion in the American Basketball League, a short-lived independent women’s league — and Marta, who played for the University of Texas-El Paso.

Providentially, Maria Dydek was a seamstress and made all of the family’s clothes.

Margo Dydek played for teams in Poland, France and Spain before moving to the United States. She was a member of the Polish Olympic team at the Sydney Games in 2000.

Dydek’s survivors include her husband, David, and two sons. Information on other survivors could not be confirmed.

Despite Dydek’s prowess in Europe, American scouts were lukewarm before she arrived in the United States in 1998 for a predraft camp. There was a reason: because of a clerical error, her height was listed as 6-6 in the advance materials they had been given.

Then Dydek walked through the door. The scouts scrambled.