WNBA star Maya Moore to sit out 2021 season to focus on family, criminal justice reform

WNBA star Maya Moore announced that she will continue to be away from the league and will sit out the 2021 season. 

Moore, who hasn't played in the league since the 2018 campaign, has devoted the years since toward fighting for criminal justice reform and was the catalyst to overturn the wrongful conviction of Jonathan Irons. He had served 23 years of a 50-year sentence after he was convicted on burglary and assault charges from an incident that took place in 1998.

Shortly after walking free from the Jefferson City (Missouri) Correctional Center last July, Irons and Moore married in September 2020.

"This journey has been quite wild, so I'm still trying to take that time to really get settled," Moore said Wednesday on Good Morning America. "We just got married, so I'm still planning on taking some rest and really just leaning in to this season of enjoying Jonathan and having this full year."

Maya Moore's legacy will be one of action off the basketball court. (Photo: Nicholas Hunt, Getty Images)

Moore said she will continue to advocate for criminal justice reform, through Win With Justice, a social campaign she launched.

"The way you change things is one person at a time," Moore said. "One community at a time. One story at a time, making justice more about restoring things than just paying penalties. That's what we're really after: redefining what a win is in our justice system."

Irons has joined her in these efforts and filed a civil lawsuit against the authorities who investigated his case.

"I am not the only person that this has happened to," Irons said on Good Morning America. "This lawsuit is about publicly exposing what has happened to me, sharing the truth, and creating public awareness. And hopefully creating a deterrent to stop this from happening to someone else."

Moore, who has played eight seasons in the WNBA, all for the Minnesota Lynx, is a six-time All-Star and won the 2014 Most Valuable Player Award. She also has won four WNBA championships and was named the WNBA Rookie of the Year after the 2011 season.

But for now, Moore said her focus will be on her family.

"It has been full, to say the least," Moore said. "We get to actually live together and live life together and fulfill some dreams together and have fun and relaxing after such a long stretch of battle and stress and striving."

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