Maya Moore’s basketball credentials are unimpeachable. She is a four-time WNBA champion, two-time EuroLeague winner, six-time WNBA All-Star and has two Olympic gold medals. In 2017, Sports Illustrated described her as the greatest winner in the history of women’s basketball. And yet the 31-year-old Moore, still in her peak playing years, didn’t play a professional game in 2020. So why is she on this list? Because her year off the court has been incredible.
In 2019 she announced she would take a sabbatical from her WNBA career – and the grind of the basketball circuit – to fight the case of Jonathan Irons, a man who argued that he had been falsely convicted of burglary and assault charges. Those charges ended with Irons being given a 50-year prison sentence for a crime he had allegedly committed when he was 16. Moore’s career break was, to put it mildly, a little more high stakes than Michael Jordan’s decision to step away from the NBA to play baseball. And while Moore earned decent money – particularly during her spells in Europe and China – she did not have the financial security Jordan enjoyed when he temporarily left the Chicago Bulls.
Anyway, Moore would argue that money was nothing compared to Irons’ freedom. “Basketball has not been foremost in my mind,” Moore told the New York Times in January. “I’ve been able to rest, and connect with people around me, actually be in their presence after all of these years on the road. And I’ve been able to be there for Jonathan.”
Moore and Irons first met through a prison ministry program: he was serving his sentence in her hometown of Jefferson City, Missouri. In March it became clear Moore does not take on challenges she doesn’t think she can win: a judge ruled that prosecutors had suppressed fingerprint evidence that could have helped prevent Irons being found guilty. He was freed in July.
Before Irons’s acquittal, Moore had told reporters: “I’m looking forward when this is done to finally getting some rest and time with my family.” Her family had soon increased in size: Irons proposed to Moore after his release and they are now married.
“We wanted to announce today that we are super excited to continue the work that we’ve been doing together, but doing it as a married couple,” Moore told Good Morning America in September. “We’re excited to share this new chapter of life together.”
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This series is not necessarily a list of the best US athletes of the year, but focuses instead on the impact they have made on the sports landscape and beyond. Having said that, they could probably still beat you at any sport of your choosing.