WNBA All-Star Maya Moore says she’s taking 2019 off from professional basketball

SHARE WNBA All-Star Maya Moore says she’s taking 2019 off from professional basketball
ax186_2a4c_9_e1549398544338.jpg

Maya Moore says she is skipping pro basketball in 2019. | Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP

Maya Moore, a six-time WNBA All-Star and the league’s MVP in 2014, will not be playing professional basketball in 2019 in order to focus on her personal life. The Minnesota Lynx superstar announced her plans in a story published Tuesday on The Players’ Tribune, saying the move allows her to put more time into her family and faith.

“My focus in 2019 will not be on professional basketball, but will instead be on the people in my family, as well as on investing my time in some ministry dreams that have been stirring in my heart for many years,” Moore wrote.

“I will certainly miss the day-to-day relationships with my teammates and basketball family this season, but my no for the 2019 pro season allows me to say yes to my family and faith family like I never have before.”

Moore, 29, didn’t clarify in the post whether she plans to return to basketball in 2020 or beyond. She played in 271 of 272 regular season games since the Lynx selected her with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft. During that time, Moore led the Lynx to six WNBA Finals and four championships.

Last season was the first time the Lynx won fewer than 20 games in Moore’s career. She averaged 18 points and a league-leading 1.7 steals per game, but the Lynx were eliminated by the Sparks in the opening round of the postseason.

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”