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MAYA MORE | BASKETBALL 🏀 GOAT 🐐
Maya Moore is a retired American professional basketball player who is widely regarded as one of the greatest women’s basketball players of all time.
• WNBA Career: She played her entire professional career for the Minnesota Lynx (2011–2018, 2020–2021) in the WNBA. During that time, she won four WNBA championships (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) and was named WNBA Finals MVP in 2013.
• College Success: Before that, she was a superstar at the University of Connecticut (UConn), where she led the Huskies to two NCAA championships (2009, 2010) and finished as a two-time Naismith Player of the Year.
• Accolades: She was a six-time WNBA All-Star, the 2014 WNBA MVP, and also won Olympic gold medals with Team USA in 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio).
• Beyond Basketball: In 2019, Moore stepped away from the game at the peak of her career to focus on criminal justice reform. She was instrumental in helping secure the release of Jonathan Irons, a wrongfully convicted man, whom she later married.
Her legacy goes beyond basketball — she is celebrated both as a Hall of Fame-level athlete and as a social justice advocate who used her platform for impact.
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
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Wednesday, 3 July 2024
4-TIME NBA ALK-STAR KEMBA WALKERRETIRES
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| Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images |
Four-time NBA All-Star point guard Kemba Walker announced his retirement on Tuesday, thanking basketball for the "amazing journey."
Walker was selected Most Outstanding Player of the 2011 NCAA Tournament won by UConn in 2011, months before Charlotte selected him with the No. 9 overall pick of the NBA draft.
He played eight seasons in Charlotte before signing a four-year, $141 million contract in July 2019 as part of a sign-and-trade deal with the Boston Celtics.
After two seasons with the Celtics, he bounced around the NBA, traded and released twice, and finishing his career with short stints with the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks.
Walker, 34, played overseas in Monaco in the 2023-24 season and ends his NBA career with averages of 19.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 33.1 minutes in 750 games (697 starts). He made four straight All-Star Games from 2017-20, and was All-NBA third team for the 2018-19 season.
"Basketball has done more for me than I could've ever imagined, and I am super thankful for the amazing journey I've had," the 6-foot guard posted to social media.
"This has all been a dream," continued Walker, who twice won the Joe Dumars Trophy for sportsmanship. "When I look back, I still can't believe the things I achieved in my career. ... Basketball will forever be a part of my life so this isn't goodbye. I'm excited for what's next."
- Reuters
Tuesday, 11 June 2024
DAN HURLEY'S REJECTION STINGS, BUT PAIN DOESN'T HAVE TO LINGER
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| Getty |
Let's get this out of the way: The Los Angeles Lakers are a little embarrassed.
They got turned down very publicly by their crush, and that carries pain whether you're a junior high student or a multibillion-dollar international megabrand.
But the Lakers have been here before. Dan Hurley passing on their head-coaching job to remain at the University of Connecticut shouldn't be a catastrophe for Jeanie Buss, Rob Pelinka & Co. It should be a reality check.
In 2019, the Lakers were turned down by both Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams, and it later became apparent that both believed the Lakers had lowballed them with their contract offers.
"I just didn't think I was treated fairly," Lue later told ESPN. "And I wasn't just going to accept any offer just to get a job."
A year after spurning the Lakers, Lue became the head coach of the crosstown LA Clippers, and two weeks ago he signed a contract extension worth approximately $14 million per season. Williams chose a five-year deal with the Suns over the Lakers back in 2019, and is now making more than $13 million per year as the coach of the Detroit Pistons.
Both figures are higher than what the Lakers reportedly offered their first choice, Hurley, this time around. League executives were evaluating the Lakers' offer to Hurley on Monday afternoon -- six years and $70 million, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski -- and debating whether it was truly a good offer or could be considered another lowball.
It would have been a huge salary for a first-time NBA head coach and one that might be impossible for Connecticut to match. But some believed if peeling Hurley and his high-energy, culture-setting, creative style out of a golden collegiate situation was truly the Lakers' moonshot move this offseason, not offering him a top-five coaching salary was, in effect, another lowball.
There was widespread wonder in the league when the news broke last week as to whether the Lakers' interest was real. In the end, that ended up swinging the other way. Now, the question is whether Hurley's interest was ever real -- not a position the Lakers were looking to be in.
So things are bleak for the Lakers right now. But they've been bleaker -- and not that long ago.
Back in 2019, Frank Vogel was introduced as head coach knowing he was no better than the Lakers' third choice. Former team president and franchise legend Magic Johnson had recently blasted Pelinka on national television for "backstabbing" him. At that time, the Lakers had missed the playoffs for six consecutive years.
After settling for Vogel, the Lakers recovered by trading for Anthony Davis, then catching fire in the Orlando, Florida, bubble to win the 17th championship in franchise history.
The Lakers, now, are in a better situation with their roster than they were in that problematic spring of 2019, but they're dealing with the same issue. In the abstract, the concept of being the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers seems extremely attractive. Great market, a magnet for players and a tremendous brand.
However, the job itself is extremely challenging at the moment.
The Lakers have finished better than seventh in the Western Conference standings just once in the past 12 seasons (when they won the title in 2019-20). Their franchise player, LeBron James, turns 40 in December. They have no salary-cap space unless James were to leave in free agency (he has until June 29 to make a decision on his $51.4 million player option). They have limited trade assets.
They play in a super-competitive conference where the teams behind them are upwardly mobile and aggressive and most of the teams in front of them are going to continue to be good -- or get even better -- in the immediate future. And they have a massive and highly demanding fanbase and are under a constant microscope by the national media because they drive massive audience engagement across the world.
Vogel won a title in 2020. Darvin Ham reached the Western Conference finals in 2023. Neither lasted longer than three seasons. No Lakers coach has since Phil Jackson.
These are some of the factors Hurley undoubtedly was weighing before making his choice over the weekend. It's hard to even quantify what would be considered a "successful" season for the Lakers in 2024-25 without knowing what changes are made to the roster. Avoiding the play-in tournament, frankly, would be a reasonable if challenging goal.
It's natural to wonder where exactly the Lakers are now in their coaching search. Getting turned down by a college coach isn't the end of the world, but the Lakers' process has left them in a tight window, five weeks after Ham was fired. There are only 16 days left before the 2024 NBA draft, where the Lakers will effectively begin their free agency because they're expected to be active in trade talks. The official start of free agency comes just four days later.
The only candidate known to visit Los Angeles other than Hurley is New Orleans associate head coach James Borrego. He is currently a finalist for the Cleveland Cavaliers coaching job and is expected to interview in Cleveland early in the week with Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson also scheduled for a visit, according to sources.
J.J. Redick's name has been attached to the Lakers job since Ham's firing. Redick has been disciplined in not directly discussing the Lakers' job in numerous media appearances in recent weeks even as rumors swirled around him. But his contact with the team had been minimal, sources said, leading up to the Lakers' aggressive pursuit of Hurley.
The Lakers might feel some pressure to land another big name after Hurley turned them down, and Redick, despite his lack of experience, would qualify. But in 2019, when he was turned down several times, Pelinka went with the stable Vogel and was rewarded, albeit in the short term.
Going for Hurley was a stunner and aggressive, but it also told a deeper story: The Lakers weren't in love with the other available candidates. They might keep looking outside the box, perhaps even for another college coach now that their willingness to enter that market has become transparent. There might be another employed coach out there who finds the offer Hurley turned down more attractive than Hurley did, especially in the current NCAA environment.
It might be tempting for some who resent the famous Laker exceptionalism to have some fun at their expense as they deal with this challenge of their own making. But history tells that the Lakers are rarely desperate and, even when things don't work out, there tend to be more options at their disposal than are always apparent. This happened with Vogel, who turned out to be the right coach at the right time. It could happen again, maybe even with Redick.
Pelinka is in a tough spot but not an impossible one. His work on the roster this summer, at least in the short term, might end up being more important than this coaching hire.
At least once the egg is off the team's face.
- Brian Windhorst, ESPN Senior Writer
Tuesday, 9 April 2024
UCONN BEAT PURDUE WND CRUISES TO SIXTH NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP
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| UConn Athletics |
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- On paper, the plan wasn't working.
Zach Edey had 14 points, the reigning Wooden Award winner was talking trash to Dan Hurley and the UConn bench, and Purdue led the Huskies with 8 minutes left in the first half.
UConn had elected to guard Edey one-on-one with Donovan Clingan, essentially allowing him to score at will, while focusing most of their defensive attention on the Boilermakers' other players. Edey was dominating UConn's projected lottery pick center like nobody else had all season.
But UConn, as it has done consistently over the past two years, stayed the course and trusted its game plan. Edey couldn't beat the Huskies by himself, and his teammates weren't doing much to help.
The floodgates opened for UConn in the second half, and the Huskies ultimately beat Purdue 75-60, winning their second straight men's national championship and becoming the first team to go back-to-back since Florida in 2006 and 2007.
"What could you say?" UConn coach Dan Hurley said. "We won -- by a lot again."
And after one of the most dominant NCAA tournament runs in history last year, when UConn beat its six opponents by 20.0 points per game, it was even more unbeatable this year. The Huskies' average scoring margin in their six 2024 NCAA tournament wins was 23.3 points.
Once again, all six wins came by double digits -- making that 12 straight NCAA tournament wins by at least 10 points dating back to last season.
"I think it's up there in terms of the greatest two-year runs that a program maybe has ever had," Hurley said. "I just think it's the best two-year run I think in a very, very long time just because of everything we lost from last year's team. To lose that much, and again, to do what we did again, it's got to be as impressive a two-year run as a program's had since prior to whoever did it before Duke. To me, it's more impressive than what Florida and Duke did because they brought back their entire teams. We lost some major players."
Purdue was expected to be UConn's most difficult test in two years. The Boilermakers were arguably the second-best team in the country all season, boasted the best player in the college basketball and were a connected group that also happened to be the second-best 3-point shooting team in the nation.
The numbers supported the Huskies' decision to focus most of their defensive effort on Purdue's complementary players. In Purdue's wins this season, Edey averaged 24.9 points. In Purdue's losses, Edey averaged 25.0 points. The 7-foot-4 center was going to get his production regardless.
As a result, the much-anticipated matchup between Edey and Clingan was one-sided in the early minutes of the game. Edey short-armed his first shot over Clingan, hitting the front rim. For the next 11 minutes, though, he did whatever he wanted against UConn's big man. He scored over Clingan, absorbed contact to finish through Clingan, and even caught a lob and dunked against Clingan.
Purdue was getting Edey the ball in good position, and he was scoring consistently.
After he scored his 13th and 14th points with 8:07 left in the first half to give Purdue a 2-point lead, he looked over at the UConn bench and exchanged a few words with Hurley as the two teams jogged back to their respective huddles at the media timeout.
"I got a couple looks," joked Huskies assistant coach Luke Murray, who was assigned to scout and plan for Purdue in preparation for Monday's game.
"Their offensive efficiency numbers really don't fluctuate that much depending on whether he's really good or great or excellent. Where it really starts to change is when [Fletcher] Loyer, [Braden] Smith and [Lance] Jones and [Mason] Gillis and those guys make 3s. ... We felt if Zach had a great game and we did a great job of holding those other guys in check, that we'd have a really good shot to win."
After Edey's opening salvo, though, he struggled for a long stretch, and Purdue couldn't keep up with the Huskies. He made just one field goal in the next 14:28 as UConn turned a 2-point deficit into a 9-point lead.
UConn tasked freshman Stephon Castle, who had previously helped shut down Northwestern's Boo Buie and Illinois' Terrence Shannon Jr. earlier in the tournament, with pressuring Purdue point guard Smith, while veteran guards Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer looked to keep Purdue's perimeter players from getting clean looks.
The Boilermakers attempted just two 3-pointers in the first half and seven in the game, with the lone made 3 coming when Smith had to put up a desperation jumper with the shot clock winding down in the first half.
"We watched the film," Newton said. "They get their 3-pointers off, people going down there and helping on Edey. They did a great job game planning and made sure it was a focus that we didn't leave the 3-point line and let Edey do his damage. He only shoots 2s. He doesn't shoot 3s. If he makes 15 2s like he did today, that's 30. Where are the rest of the points going to come from?"
"I just think it's the best two-year run I think in a very, very long time just because of everything we lost from last year's team. To lose that much, and again, to do what we did again, it's got to be as impressive a two-year run as a program's had since prior to whoever did it before Duke. To me, it's more impressive than what Florida and Duke did because they brought back their entire teams. We lost some major players."
UConn coach Dan Hurley
"The coaches made a point that we'd be really locked in if we could control their 3-point attempts," Spencer added. "I think holding them to seven, we were just really locked in on not letting those other guys get involved in the game."
Purdue briefly threatened UConn early in the second half, when Camden Heide had an aggressive put-back dunk to cut the lead to seven and when Edey scored four straight points to cut the lead to nine. But the Huskies constantly countered with key shots when it mattered and led by double-digits for nearly 15 minutes in the second half.
They became the third team to win multiple title games by 15-plus points and just the second team to do it in consecutive years, joining UCLA's three-year run from 1967 to 1969, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
"To win [by] double digits these past two years, it's just a tribute to our culture here," forward Alex Karaban said. "We're never satisfied. We're always hungry. We're always going to go on runs and we're always going to continue to play hard to where we're going to break the other team. No team practices like us, no team goes as hard as us. It showed in the second half."
Newton won the NCAA tournament's Most Outstanding Player award after finishing with 20 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists -- the second time he has been UConn's best player in the championship game. In the 2023 title game win over San Diego State, Newton went for 19 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists.
Castle continued his stellar postseason, finishing with 15 points and 5 rebounds after tallying 21 points and 5 rebounds against Alabama in the semifinals.
Edey had 37 points for the most points scored in a losing effort in the national championship game.
While last year's fifth championship seemingly settled the debate around UConn's blue-blood status, going back-to-back for the Huskies' sixth title in 26 years puts the program in truly rarified air. Only six other schools have produced back-to-back men's basketball champions, and UConn is now tied for third all time with six championships.
"We're going to try to replicate it again. We're going to maintain a championship culture," Hurley said.
"I don't think that we're going anywhere."
- Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff Writer