When Jonathan Irons left the Jefferson City Correctional Center on Wednesday night, Maya Moore was overwhelmed.
For the 40-year-old Irons, these were his first steps outside of the Missouri state maximum security prison in 23 years. His first few breaths out of prison as an adult.
For Moore, 31, this was the moment he had waited for years to materialize, one for which he sacrificed his WNBA career.
As the two hugged, Moore had a question for the man she had known since she was 18 years old.
“How does it feel?” she asked.
“Life,” said Irons, wearing a cloth mask with the word “hope” around his neck. “I feel like I can live life now.
“I am free.”
In 2018, Moore, at the peak of his career and at the top of the sport, decided to leave the WNBA to focus on releasing Irons, who had been sentenced to 50 years in a Missouri state prison after being convicted of robbery and assault at the age of 16. She would not have been eligible for parole for another 20 years. Taking on this task would come with no guarantees of success for Moore.
But In March, Irons and Moore received their long-awaited breakthrough. A Missouri judge reversed Irons’ conviction in 1998. And after a series of unsuccessful appeals and the Supreme Court refused to take the case, the chief prosecutor in St. Charles County, Missouri, rejected a new trial by Irons. .
Had won.
“This trip was profound,” Moore said in a conference call Thursday morning. “We were invested. Jonathan was reversed. It was a deeply rooted experience.
“If you are not committed to being deeply committed and invested over time, this is not how legacies are made. Legacies are made and maintained through deep, long-term commitments to people. ”
As an unprecedented movement has overtaken the country in response to the murders of African Americans like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, athletes have been forced to deal with social injustice and the efforts they are willing to make to advocate for change.
Players protested on the streets, advocated on social media, and challenged power structures that were once silent to aid their fight.
But another option has also gained traction: the option to sit.
Historically, only a select few have taken this path, but today it has become a considerable tool for athletes to use their platforms amid a pandemic and social unrest. And as players across all sports weigh the pros and cons of putting their already short careers on hold, they can now look to Moore.
By not playing, Moore accomplished more than helping a city win a championship: it helped a man win his freedom.
“This is the epitome of using his platform,” Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said in March, shortly after Irons’ conviction had been overturned.. “She’s not dripping down the court, she’s not making a move, but the way she gives herself is the same as she gave as a teammate, as a professional in her trade, that’s really who Maya is.” If Maya is doing it, it will be excellent. “
“It doesn’t matter which team he plays for,” added Reeve, “it gives that team a chance to win.”
Reeve, who had been Moore’s coach in the Lynx since Moore was the No. 1 overall choice in the 2011 draft, has been around since Moore’s early leadership in the field of racial justice. In July 2016, in response to the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and members of the Dallas Police Department, Reeve helped facilitate a demonstration by his players. During a press conference before a game against the Dallas Wings, all four Lynx captains, including Moore, wore T-shirts that said, “Change begins with us. Justice and responsibility ”on the front. Castilla, Sterling and the Dallas Police Badge were on the back, along with “Black Lives Matter.”
Reeve said Moore felt strongly and very attentive during the construction of the 2016 rally. But the lifelong coach said she was shocked when Moore suspended her basketball career two years later.
“It wasn’t necessarily something I understood to be as big as it became,” Reeve said. “I don’t know at what point it got as big as it did that she wanted to sacrifice a part of her career for it.”
To understand the magnitude of what Moore has accomplished in 2020 requires both the framework and an appreciation of what he left on the basketball court.
At the age of 29, Moore had won four WNBA championships, one Finals MVP, one League MVP, went six-time All-Star, won two gold medals at the Olympic World Championship, and FIBA, two titles. Euroleague and international team championships in Spain and China. . All this after a university career that included two NCAA championships, three Wade trophies and being twice named Naismith Player of the Year.
So when Moore announced last February that he would be staying out of the 2019 WNBA season, he froze the entire sport. Moore was synonymous with women’s basketball, on the way to consolidating her place as the best champion the sport has ever seen.
Reeve characterized Moore’s departure at the peak of his career to people like Barry Sanders or Sandy Koufax.
“It is not something I have dealt with or seen someone else in my 30+ years of training,” Reeve said.
American sociologist and civil rights activist Harry Edwards states this clearly. When the story reflects on the sacrifice Moore made during her career and the impact she made off the court, she said, Moore should be named among the greatest sports athlete figures of all time.
“What Maya is doing is in the tradition of Muhammad Ali,” Edwards said in March. “What Maya is doing is walking a path that Colin Kaepernick walked.”
The story reflects a narrative that has not recognized the contribution of the athletes and their activism. While many recall the pre-game actions taken by the St. Louis Rams to show solidarity with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, they are less aware of the actions of Ariyana Smith, a female basketball player at Knox College, who was the first athlete to demonstrate during the Black Lives Matter movement. While many remember the demonstrations of NFL teams kneeling during the anthem in 2017, few will remember the first time an entire team knelt for the anthem – Indiana fever in 2016.
Edwards laid the root of the problem in society’s inability to equate women’s sport with men’s sport. Lack of respect for female athletes has caused their legacies to be cast aside much more quickly.
“Women have always been marginalized. There has always been a reluctance to credit women as athletes, “said Edwards. “Maya’s challenge is not only social justice … do you understand the magnitude of my sacrifice? Because that is also part of the fight for justice and equality in American society, and she raises it. Until women’s sport is carried out publicly in the same vein as men’s, and Moore is viewed as one of the best basketball players in history, regardless of gender, the magnitude of Moore’s legacy cannot be fully contextualized and therefore So much, properly understood.
“What Ali resigned made the magnitude of his commitment even greater. What Curt Flood gave up made the magnitude of that commitment even greater. Because not only were they doing it on principle … but they went too far to do it, “Edwards said.” Until we understand and appreciate women’s sports, that aspect of Maya’s contribution will be minimized. “
Whether or not Moore’s legacy will permeate the narrative of the sport’s greatest sports athletes, its impact and the lane it created have already inspired the next group of changemakers. In this WNBA season, three players joined Moore to choose to fight for social justice: Natasha Cloud of the 2019 WNBA champion, Washington Mystics and Tiffany Hayes and Renee Montgomery of the Atlanta Dream.
“I always make sure to tell people that she’s a pioneer,” said Montgomery. “Everyone understands why I do it now. She did it two years ago. I’m getting a lot of media attention for what I’m doing; They did it before it was great, before it was understood. “
Cloud, who has used his platform to advocate for solutions to gun violence in the Washington metropolitan area and social justice nationwide, feels nothing but pride for Moore and what he has accomplished off the court.
“To be the face of women’s basketball not only here in the United States but in all parts of the world … stay away from the game and something that is about you. Being selfless and doing something that is bigger than yourself and just for the love of other people and your understanding, is a testament to who she is as a person. “
On Thursday, Moore said that while he was able to get some rest off the court, he believes his family needs to enter a new season of rest after Irons’ long struggle for freedom. She said she plans to sit down this WNBA season, as expected, adding that she is inspired by the wave of athletes who have also dedicated part of their careers to making a tangible difference in their communities.
“See the athletes looking within themselves saying, ‘What can I do to empower someone else?’ It’s amazing, “said Moore. “I’m excited that people understand where the real change is in terms of giving up on something.”
