Maya Moore To Skip Second Consecutive WNBA Season And 2020 Olympics To Focus On Release Of Incarcerated Missouri Man
Minnesota Lynx star Maya Moore says she's skipping another WNBA season (second in a row) to continue the fight for the release of a Missouri inmate she believes is innocent, according to The New York Times.
Moore, the 2014 WNBA MVP and four-time champion, has also taken herself out of consideration for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
"I'm in a really good place right now with my life, and I don't want to change anything," Moore told the Times in a telephone interview this week. "Basketball has not been foremost in my mind. 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."
Jonathan is 39-year-old Jonathan Irons, who is serving a 50-year prison sentence for a conviction of burglary and assault of a man in his home with a weapon. Moore met Irons in 2017 when she visited the Jefferson City Correctional Center. He was 16 when he got arrested.
According to Irons’ lawyers, there is no evidence (witnesses, fingerprints, footprints, DNA) to corroborate that their client committed the crime. Irons is Black, living in poverty and was tried as an adult. An all-white jury found him guilty.
For Moore, this is her focus right now. But it doesn’t mean that she’s retired from the game.
"I don't feel like this is the right time for me to retire," she told the Times. "Retirement is something that is a big deal, and there is a right way to do it well, and this is not the time for me."
Props to Maya for standing by the courage of her convictions, and fighting for others.
