Maya Moore's sacrifice is a reminder of what real activism looks like
At the height of her professional peak, WNBA star Maya Moore put her career with the Minnesota Lynx on hold to help one man gain his freedom.
On Wednesday, Jonathan Irons walked out of Missouri’s Jefferson City Correctional Center a free man, after Moore and a dedicated team worked tirelessly to overturn his wrongful 1998 conviction on charges of burglary and assault with a weapon.
In a video posted on Instagram, Moore drops to her knees in relief as Irons walks out of the front doors, and waits her turn before being able to embrace him. It’s a much deserved celebratory moment, but also a stark reminder of the gross failures of our judicial system.
What Moore and the rest of Irons’ team has accomplished is nothing short of remarkable yet it is infuriating that this is what it took to get an innocent man out of jail.
According to ESPN, Irons was arrested at 16 and tried as an adult by an all white jury. He served 22 years of a 50 year sentence that rested on eyewitness testimony even though there was no physical evidence to link him to the crime.
Moore took an interest in the case as a teenager, seeing a cousin pour over Irons’ files. She established a relationship with Irons through her family, and finally around 2018, suffering from burn out and motivated more and more by Irons’ story, Moore put her career on hold to see a gross injustice set to right.
For two years, Moore has advocated for Irons and contributed to his legal fees, helping the team fighting for his release. The case, she told the New York Times, gave her a new sense of purpose and direction. Moore, who won the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award and a Finals MVP and League MVP honor, put aside her ambition because she felt compelled to do something greater. She showed that a commitment towards social justice requires more than a few Instagram posts and 250 characters on Twitter.
In the past month, athlete activism has been in something of a resurgence, with players stepping up to lead in ways that they haven’t before. Many are dipping their toes in the water, trying to hold their careers and their morals in both hands. I don’t doubt that these athletes have their hearts in the right place and are willing to do the work of achieving real justice, but they should look to Moore to see what a long road lies ahead of them. Achieving racial justice won’t be accomplished in the span of a season or two, nor will it come without real tests of perseverance and strength.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, roughly 2.2 million people are behind bars in the United States, an increase of 1.9 million since 1972. The United States has the world’s largest prison population and over incarcerates young black men at staggering rate. Per SPLC, “young black men who failed to finish high school are more likely to be behind bars than employed.”
Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve effectively summarized why Moore’s victory was double-edged.
“Maya Moore should never have had to leave her profession to engage in the fight against the two-tiered criminal justice system that over polices, wrongfully convicts, and over sentences black and brown communities,” she said in a statement. “The criminal justice system in America is so far from fair and equal and it angers me that Maya has had to sacrifice so much to overcome this racially disparate system.”
Moore now joins the ranks of Colin Kaepernick and Muhammad Ali in setting the standard for athlete activism. It’s clear that what Moore helped accomplish off the court will be as great a part of her legacy as what she achieved on it.