Maya Moore wants to push the WNBA to 'another level'

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With both the NFL and the NBA big question marks for the upcoming season and baseball still struggling to live up to its one-time sports dominance, the WNBA looks more poised than ever to capture more fan attention and a big reason for that is Maya Moore.

Selected the overall number one pick in the WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx, which she’s helped lead to the top of the WNBA standings this season, Maya Moore has taken the momentum she generated at the University of Connecticut as a star player with the UConn Huskies where she set several records, including being named Big East Player of the Year as a freshmen, leading the female Huskies to two national championships as well as a record-breaking 90-game-winning-streak her tenure.

The Huskies’ failure to capture a third straight title was disappointing for Moore but it has not affected her stellar WNBA play. theGrio asked Moore several questions about growing the WNBA and women’s basketball as well as becoming the first female player to represent the iconic Jordan Brand.

As a WNBA athlete, do you feel that the road has been paved for you or do you feel an obligation to keep moving women’s basketball forward?

I absolutely feel both. There’s been no question that there have been women before me who have paved the way. You know the Ann Myers, the Cheryl Millers. The pioneers in the ABL, the WNBA, Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, Cheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper, Rebecca Lobo, I could go on and on. I remember when the league got the started back in 1997, it was so cool to watch and I feel like that we continue to give fans something to be excited about.

If you watched some of the games at the start of the [WNBA] season, they’ve been really good games. We’ve got a lot of great talent. I feel a part of that second wave of getting people to see what we have and what we’re doing. It’s part of the reason why we play so hard. We want to make sure that people who are in the stands who watch us for the first time are going to want to come back so I definitely feel both, having had people pave the way but also being a part of [that second wave] to help push the WNBA to another level.

In the past, the best female players earned their stripes playing against the guys but not all of the women on the court matched that play. Do you think today’s game has caught up to the skill level of the best women’s basketball players?

I feel like women’s basketball is at a place that it’s never been before — skill level, talent, excitement, tempo. As a society, women playing sports has become more and more popular and common that a deeper pool of talent [has emerged]. The tempo of the game, the fast transition style that we play here at the Minnesota Lynx I think is part of the reason that more and more people are flocking to the gym to see us because the skill level and talent is I think higher than it’s ever been.

As a kid, did you dream of representing the Jordan Brand one day?

No. [That’s] another part of my life where God’s put an unexpected blessing in my life. I would like to say that everything I’ve done in my life that I dreamed up but some of them have been great, unexpected surprises. It’s something that, as I got to thinking more and more about my professional career, [became] an opportunity and a possibility and then once it really happened I think it was a gradual, day by day, excitement of ‘wow this is really happening. This is huge.’Representing the Jordan Brand definitely takes you to a whole new level; how will you make the most of the opportunity?

It’s still really early. There are a lot of plans we discussed and talked about as far as the exact activation and the product but just the merging of the platform that I had in the college women’s basketball game, that I’ll have here as a professional and also the platform that Jordan and all his Jordan Brand athletes have, you know merging that together is going to be a beautiful thing and I hope we continue to celebrate basketball as a whole. I’m excited to do that.

Do you have any plans that specifically cater to women?

Absolutely. I think that’s one of the exciting parts. I would say that catering and focusing on the female fan. Just even doing some research and studying as part of my major, [an individualized major in sports, media and promotion], and just realizing how much of an untapped market women’s sports fans are in general.

It’s pretty exciting to know that this [relationship] will absolutely impact that. I wish I could tell you exact marketing strategies and plans but we’re still pretty early in the process of working those things out but the potential is exciting.

Will you have the privilege of not having to play in Europe?

I’m supposed to go over to Valencia Spain in January. That will be another exciting part of my transition of just being a pro and living overseas. It’s just all part of our lifestyle for now.

But that can change. For example, you participated in the launch of the women sports website, espnW. Do you think the investment ESPN and others have made in women’s college basketball specifically has helped to grow the sport overall?

I think it’s a huge part of why I’m so excited to be a women’s basketball player at this time. It’s because the exposure, slowly but surely, is starting to get there. That’s the cool thing too: to know that once that exposure is there people are excited about it.

It’s not like the product isn’t good. College women’s basketball I think has really taken off. College sports in general is great but just to be able to have more exposure [for the women’s game], it has absolutely helped and people getting a chance to get excited with us when these cool moments happen. You know all of the records that I was able to be a part of at UConn, you know people, could see that. They loved it and kept up with it so it’s a good sign.