Maya Moore: The GOAT On and Off the Court
On January 16, 2023, Maya Moore announced her retirement from basketball. While she hadn’t played since 2018, she never officially retired (she was on hiatus from basketball starting in 2019). She is one of the best WNBA players ever, one of the best UConn players, and is personally my favorite WNBA player of all time. That said, her illustrious basketball career might not even the most important thing she has accomplished thus far in her life.
Despite living in Connecticut for all but 4-5 years of my
life, I am not a UConn fan. That said,
as with most Connecticut resident, I rooted for UConn Women’s Basketball when
they played. While there are several players
who are arguably the best player in the program’s history, including Breanna
Stewart (I imagine most individuals’ choice), Swin Cash, Diana Taurasi, Sue
Bird, Tina Charles, Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters, and Katie Lou Samuelson, I have
a difficult time arguing against Moore.
She was a 2-time champion at UConn, 2-time player of the year, 4-time
All-American, and an NCAA Tournament MVP, as well as an Academic All-American
on multiple occasions. To showcase just
how dominant she was in college, her career lows were 17.8 PPG (as a freshman),
3.1 APG (freshman), 7.6 RPG (freshman), 1.7 SPG (freshman), 1.0 BPG (junior),
51.5 FG% (junior), and 38.4 3P% (senior).
She always looked so natural at both ends of the court as she could
score from anywhere and was athletic enough to switch onto multiple players (even
though she was active recently, I think she was a tiny bit ahead of her time as
a dominant shooter who could guard both forwards and guards). Even while she dominated on offense, she seemingly
never took any defensive plays off either; in college, she never averaged fewer
than 3.1 stocks (steals+blocks), which is absolutely absurd. On top of that, she won a ton: while at UConn, she went 150-4. She is in the top-10 in UConn career records
in points (1st, with over 3,000 more than Stewart), rebounds (2nd),
assists (9th), steals (4th), blocks (9th), and
3’s (4th), and is all over the record book for single season and
game records as well.
After being drafted 1st overall in the WNBA Draft
by the Minnesota Lynx in 2011, Moore immediately made an impact on the team, as
she won Rookie of the Year on a team that ended up winning the
championship. While she shot efficiently
and averaged 13.2 PPG, she emerged as a more prolific scorer after that, never
again averaging fewer than 16.4 PPG. She
consistently led Minnesota in scoring while on a dominant team that featured star
players Sylvia Fowles, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, and Rebekkah Brunson. This squad was dominant and won 4
championships from 2011-2017, one in each of the odd-numbered seasons. In particular, I remember watching Game 5 of
the 2017 Finals and thinking that she wasn’t having that good of a game when
she finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds and worked her butt off defensively. She went 0-1 from 3 that game and I thought
she was struggling since she shot 54.2% from deep for the entire playoffs. You know that someone is dominant when they
play like that, and it is considered a weaker performance. In her 8 years in the WNBA, she was a 4-time
champion, MVP in 2014, Finals MVP in 2013, 6-time All-Star, 3-time All-Star
Game MVP (like most basketball All-Star Games, high scorers thrive in it, and
she made that game her own every time), 7-time All-WNBA (including 5-time All-First
Team), 2-time All-Defense, and won a scoring title and steals title. She also was named to the W25 team and the
top-20 team for the 25th and 20th year anniversaries of
the WNBA respectively. She also went
515-95 since high school (in other words, if winning matters most to you, I
think we have found your favorite women’s basketball player).
Despite all the accolades from her college and professional
basketball career, her greatest accomplishments might have come off the
court. After the 2018 season, she
announced that she was going to step away for the following season to focus on
family and ministry activities. Specifically,
she focused on advocating for the release of Jonathan Irons, who was serving a
50-year prison sentence in Missouri for robbery and assault, in which he was charged
as a minor. She continued her hiatus
into the 2020 season while continuing to fight for criminal justice reform and on
Irons’ appeal. Irons’ conviction was
overturned due to some issues with evidence and the way the trial was handled,
and after appeals from the attorney general’s office were unsuccessful and the
case was not retried, he was released on July 1st, 2020. She has also been involved in social justice
efforts related to racism and Christianity.
After Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, Moore was among the
forefront of WNBA players to speak out regarding it and to call for justice and
police reform, one of many moments that has given the WNBA a reputation of
being among the more politically and socially active leagues. She and Irons married after his release and recently
had a son.
It feels weird to write these kinds of tributes when a
player retires since it always feels like writing these treats the individual
as though they are dead. In a certain sense,
it is illogical because the individual can still have two or three times their
life remaining after they announce their retirement, but society tends to act
like their athletic accomplishments are their greatest impact. Moore is only 33 and while one of the
greatest basketball players I have ever seen, I don’t believe she has done her
greatest work yet. I don’t believe this
is the last we have heard of Moore, and I cannot wait to see what impact she
has on the world in the years to come.
Bonus: Jonquel Jones
Trade Grades
To seamlessly make an awkward transition from something
sweet, one of the biggest trades I have seen for any sport just occurred: WNBA superstar Jonquel Jones has been traded from
the Connecticut Sun to the New York Liberty.
She reportedly requested to be traded there during the offseason, and it
was granted in a 3-team trade between Connecticut, New York, and the Dallas
Wings. The trade breaks out as follows:
- New York Receives: Jonquel Jones (Connecticut), Kayla Thornton (Dallas)
- Connecticut Receives: Rebecca Allen (New York), Ty Harris (Dallas), #6 pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft (New York)
- Dallas Receives: Natasha Howard (New York), Reserved Rights to Crystal Dangerfield (New York)
New York: A+
New York made the playoffs last year, and while it was a
quick out for them, that’s good start for a team that is centered around young superstar
guard Sabrina Ionescu. While a good
start, what is really going to help them for the coming years is another superstar. While New York has been liked to Breanna
Stewart for most of this offseason, 29-year-old Jones makes a lot of sense next
to the 25-year-old Ionescu. Jones was
the 2021 MVP and can dominate on both ends of the court. On offense, she can score at will inside the
arc (58.2 2P% last season) and shoot well from deep (36.9%). She is adept at creating her own shots and
making difficult shots due to her strength and physicality. She is also an elite defender who can switch
onto multiple defenders and is adept in the paint and around the perimeter due
to her athleticism. The one knock on her
game is that she is not a particularly good playmaker and looks for her own
shots much more often than creating looks for others. I doubt she’ll have to do that quite as much
with Ionescu being the team’s primary ball handler, so that issue should be mitigated
a bit. Jones will definitely help them
out on both ends, especially on offense, where they stalled a bit at
points. It definitely stinks to lose
Howard, an All-Star with a nice knack for defense, Allen, a good shooter who
struggled from deep last year, Dangerfield, a young player with offensive
potential as a guard, and a draft pick, but ultimately that is a bargain price
for Jones. They also got Thornton, who
is a streaky shooter but good defender, and should be a nice complementary piece. To make matters craziest, New York could have
the cap space available to sign Stewart in free agency if they so choose, resulting
in a quartet of Stewart, Jones, Ionescu, and my tears…but seriously, Stewart
and Jones are two of the top-3 players in the WNBA, and Ionescu can be up there
in the next few years; that’s wild.
Connecticut: D-
From a player’s standpoint, the fact that Jones is traded to
the location she wanted could bode well with star players in the future. Beyond that, it is a pretty weak return for
one of the top players in the WNBA. I’m
not saying that to disparage any of the players they got by any means, but it
is difficult to replace a superstar like Jones.
While it remains to be seen what Connecticut uses the 6th
pick in the Draft for, they got a couple players with shooting potential in
Allen and Harris. Allen is coming off a
rough shooting season in New York (31.3%), but she shot 39.7% the previous two
seasons 36.9% for her career, so that is likely a fluke. She also is a solid defender and has nice
size for a guard at 6’2, which gives her the ability to switch onto some
forwards as well. While Harris has only
shot 32.9% in her WNBA career, the 25-year-old has shot above 79% from the line
each of the last two seasons, which typically bodes well for future shooting
success. She also has shown some
playmaking potential, with a 29.2 AST% compared to an 18.1 TOV% and 17.4 USG%. Ultimately, the grade is best labeled as an
incomplete since Connecticut has the money to sign a big name in free agency (this
move and trading Jasmine Thomas earlier today opened a little more cap space)
if they so choose (while they could resign their own All-Star Brionna Jones,
they could also chase Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot, Nneka Ogwumike, Candace
Parker, Emma Meeseman, Allie Quigley, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, and several
others). That said, I think they resign Brionna
Jones and fill out the roster in other ways, causing the trade of a top-3
player in the WNBA to result in likely a few role players when the pick is
included. That said, it should be noted
that they weren’t going to be able to bring back Brionna Jones without this
trade, so that’s worth something.
Dallas: A
It seems like every time there’s a 3 or more-team trade,
there is at least one team that makes a move that is smaller than the initial
move but looks really good. I think Dallas
acquiring Howard makes them much better, especially on defense. While Thornton is a really good defender who
is a bit of a streaky shooter and Harris has shown some nice potential, Howard
can immediately help them out defensively, where Dallas struggled a bit. She is also a really nice finisher and could
be a better scorer than Thornton was in Dallas, which will be nice to pair with
Arike Ogunbowale. I also like the
addition of the reserved rights for Crystal Dangerfield, meaning they can
negotiate without her becoming an unrestricted free agent. She is a good shooter with some defensive
potential, and I believe she would be a welcome depth addition. In addition to these moves, they will also
bring back Satou Sabally (if she remains healthy), which will be another
massive addition. This trade makes Dallas
better in a year where there are a few good teams could take a step back, which
puts them in a good situation to potentially make a jump.
Do you have any favorite Maya
Moore memories? The 10-3-pointer game at
UConn stands out to me. Let me know in
the comments!
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