The basketball star did not play a professional game this year, and yet she achieved arguably the most important victory of her career
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.
Related: Jonathan Irons, helped by WNBA’s Maya Moore, freed as conviction overturned
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.
