MAYA MOORE IS THE DEFINITION OF ‘PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER’…AND THEN SOME
Maya Moore must have had the most profound and deeply impactful guidance ever.
From God.
From her family.
Or from, I don’t know where.
She so far surpasses whatever a human being should be, it’s incomprehensible.
Unfathomable.
Or, she’s just that way, period.
This woman is the quintessential superstar.
Transcendent.
Never mind her perpetual rolling river of accomplishments and accolades on the basketball court.
Her hardwood achievements are the stuff of legend.
Naming her their inaugural Performer of the Year in 2017, Sports Illustrated called Moore, the greatest winner in the history of women’s basketball.
Not an overreach.
In high school, Moore was the National Gatorade Player of the Year; the Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year; and a McDonald’s All-American.
She played small forward for the UConn women’s basketball team and won back-to-back national championships in 2009 and 2010.
She was selected as the John Wooden Award winner in 2009 after leading Connecticut to an undefeated national championship.
The following season, Moore led UConn to its second straight national title, as its overall undefeated streak rose to 78 games.
In the 2010-’11 season, she fueled the Huskies in extending the run to 90 — an NCAA both-gender (all-divisions) record.
That season, Moore became the first female basketball player to sign with Air Jordan.
Her professional exploits are perhaps even more impressive.
She was the first overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft, joining a Minnesota Lynx team she helped to four WNBA championships (2011; 2013; 2015; 2017).
She’s been named the WNBA Most Valuable Player (2014); WNBA Finals MVP ((2013); a three-time WNBA All-Star Game MVP (2015; 2017; 2018); the WNBA Scoring Champion (2014); and the WNBA Rookie of the Year (2011).
Moore has been selected to four WNBA All-Star teams and three All-WNBA teams.
Internationally, she won both the Spanish league title and the EuroLeague title in 2012, playing for Ros Casares Valencia, and she won the Chinese league title each year from 2013-’15.
There was a second EuroLeague banner in 2018, playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg.
Oh yes, also in her trophy case are two Olympic gold medals — 2012 and 2016.
After 2017, her W-L record in the U.S. since high school, was an astounding 497–78.
And then she stopped.
Just like that.
She stopped playing basketball in her prime, at age 30.
Two one-year sabbaticals, the second one currently in progress.
Maya Moore had a higher calling.
Advocating for prosecutorial reform in the American justice system.
Working to free people who have been wrongfully convicted.
Rejiggering and even overhauling American jurisprudence.
“Over ten thousand people may be wrongfully convicted of serious crimes. Every year. And I know one of them.”
— -Maya Moore to NBC News
Former Inmate №101145 — Jonathan Irons.
Moore’s tireless efforts on Irons’ behalf finally bore fruit.
Deeply troubled by what she considers an unequivocal and painful reality, “that black and brown bodies are more vulnerable because of our country’s history, that our justice system has historically operated from a racist spirit,” she worked and worked, to right the wrong.
Knowing that this was “true, but not an acknowledged truth,” she pushed hard for reform, launching a non-profit, Win With Justice, to spotlight wrongful convictions.
She started a change.org petition on Irons’ behalf.
After completing nearly half of a 50-year sentence handed down in 1998 when he was found guilty of burglary and assault with a deadly weapon — and in his fourth appeal — his case was re-examined.
His wrongful conviction was overturned.
He was freed from prison.
Irons and Moore married in September 2020.
Basketball would continue to wait.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in September 2021.]
