Former UConn star Moore concludes playing career
Maya Moore redefined the basketball world.
She had a one-of-a-kind career in college with UConn women’s basketball and a historic career as a professional with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
In the past four years, she’s brought that same level of greatness to all that she’s done in her work for social justice reform.
On Monday, Moore, 33, officially announced her retirement from basketball, a sport she dedicated 20 years of her life to, to focus on her family and her work in bettering the American justice system.
Moore first stepped onto the national stage a high school basketball star in Georgia. She came to UConn in 2007 as the No. 1 recruit in the nation and spent the next four years demonstrating what it meant to be great every single day whether during a game or in practice.
She was a four-time AllAmerican and a threetime Big East Player of the Year and Wade Trophy recipient. Twice she was named the Naismith College Player of the Year, the Wooden Award winner, the AP Player of the year, the USBWA Player of the Year and a Honda Sports Award winner.
She also led the Huskies to two NCAA titles and was part of a 90-game winning streak.
Yet when asked Monday for her favorite memory of being a Husky, Moore talked about the process of building team chemistry with the other players during the preseason going into her sophomore year. The Huskies lost to Stanford in the Final Four in 2008, so the players were motivated as they returned ahead of the next season.
She remembers how dedicated everyone was despite the season still weeks away.
“We were training our tails off. We were so motivated, having lost in the Final Four the year before,” Moore said. “Our team chemistry just shot through the roof, and we were just all so focused and unified in that grind, getting up early 5 o’clock a.m. in the gym, doing weights and playing pickup and conditioning and we even had a nutritionist too, even before nutritionists were common.”
Moore led UConn to back-to-back undefeated championships in 2009 and in 2010. During her four years in Storrs, UConn went 150-4. Moore continues to hold the program’s record for most career points at 3,036 and is second all-time with 1,276 rebounds.
The lesson from that 2008-09 team? Moore and UConn were motivated by the Final Four loss as they prepared for the next season. They would reel off 90 straight wins, including two titles.
Moore took something from that stretch.
“In college preparation, preparation, preparation; that’s what UConn was. I learned, really at one of the highest levels, the value and the importance of preparation and how that affects your confidence,” Moore said. “If you are prepared, you’re going to be confident but then also how to deal with working so hard all year and then coming up short and having to overcome really big heartbreaking losses — not a lot of losses, but very meaningful losses.”
Moore continued to reach unprecedented levels of greatness in the WNBA. She teamed up with a stacked Lynx roster that featured Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Sylvia Fowles and former Connecticut Sun guard Lindsay Whalen.
With Moore, Minnesota won four WNBA Championships while the former Husky forward was named the 2011 WNBA Rookie of the Year, 2014 WNBA MVP, the 2013 WNBA Finals MVP and a four-time WNBA AllStar.
“I think when you play for as long as I did … you just realize what a ridiculous gift it is to be able to do what I was able to do,” Moore said. “And it was just very humbling to be around so many great people and athletes and fans and people that love the game. That’s just so unique.”
On the international stage, Moore won two Olympic gold medals — both coached under Husky head coach Geno Auriemma.
“The love that Maya had for the game, the way she played the game, the passion that she played the game with — you don’t walk away from that nonchalantly,” Auriemma said in a statement on Monday. “I’m sure this was a very difficult decision for her and her family. At the same time, to be able to make this decision says to me that she is so committed to the life and family that she’s built and the causes she’s fighting for now.”
In 2019, Moore announced she would step away from basketball to focus her attention to social reform, starting with the American justice system and overturning the wrongful conviction of Irons.
During her time away from basketball, Moore never once stated if she would return to the sport or if she would retire. She said she missed playing with her Lynx teammates “more than anything” and it was hard watching that fellow members of the starting lineup slowly retire (Fowles retired this past summer). Yet, she knew her heart was no longer on the court and didn’t really question whether she’d return.
“I was very full if that makes sense. Like I was so full and focused on what I was doing that I wasn’t just sitting around like wishing I was playing again,” Moore said. “I think I just felt such a sense of purpose and the direction I was heading that there wasn’t a wrestling with that going on.”
Through Moore’s efforts, Irons’ case was overturned. He was released from jail in July 2020 and a few weeks later he and Moore married. The couple welcomed their first child in 2022.
“I couldn’t have written this story like this,” Moore said. “This has definitely been unexpected, but at the same time, it’s been really thoughtful and planned and prepared. And that’s life, right? Like a lot of it is unexpected, but you also do your best to try to be prepared. Because hey, that’s basketball, too, right? …The way I’ve been shaped I think it’s just caused me to really value relationships, value being present, value the process and value people, because our story is a victory story, and I got to be a part of a lot of victories but it wasn’t easy … every victory you see, you see 100 different moments of perseverance.”
When asked if she’s thought about returning to the sport as a coach, Moore said she isn’t sure if her life has room for that right now.
“There’s no way I could have had the journey that I’ve had without the coaches,” Moore said. “Whether it was high school, or AAU, or college or professional, I was super spoiled to have like world-class, literally world-class, coaches for more than half of my career. So, I don’t want to say like, ‘Yeah, I could coach,’ like it’s this casual thing. Coaching is that heavy, honorable, like super invested thing that I don’t want to commit to unless I can really commit to it.”
Moore doesn’t leave basketball with harsh feelings. Instead, she wants to continue helping the sport thrive by bettering its world from the outside in.
“I think looking forward I hope people can find inspiration from my heartbeat for humanity and engaging in sport in a way that remembers that our humanity is first and foremost in how we play the game, how we leverage the game, how we treat people, how we play the game responsibly,” she said.
While Moore has officially put the cap on her playing career, her legacy off the court will only continue to grow to unforeseen heights.
“It’s great that Maya was able to walk away on her own terms at the top of her game while she was still a champion,” Auriemma said. “She decided that winning championships off the court was more fulfilling than the championships she won on the court. I have no doubt in my mind that the success she had in high school, in college, in the pros, in the Olympics, have prepared her for even greater success for her, for her family and the community that she’s a part of. I’m really proud of her for making this decision.”
On Monday, Moore spoke of her legacy.
“I always tried to bring light and joy and an intensity to what I was doing,” Moore said. “I hope people saw me as someone who gave all she had in whatever she was doing. Whatever play it was, whatever moment I was engaging with another person; I tried to give my all in those moments. But also (as) somebody who looks beyond the craft that I pursue and tries to value people, having a proper perspective, having a healthy-life-giving perspective about where people fit into this journey of life that we’re in and just someone that never gave up.
“Never gave up, whether it was being down in a game and trying to help the team come back or not giving up on a person, like Jonathan (Irons), or just persisting through the grind of every year. I tried to finish the things that I said yes to.”