In January of this year, WNBA star Maya Moore Irons announced she would be formally retiring from basketball. She left the sport, following an extended break that began in 2019, as one of its most decorated players. In 2017, Moore Irons helped the Minnesota Lynx, her team since 2011, win its fourth WNBA title in seven years, and she counts two Olympic gold medals, six All-Star selections, and a string of MVP titles among her achievements. The star had been widely expected to return to the game, and her permanent departure came as a shock.
But off the court, the wrongful imprisonment of a man named Jonathan Irons had long hung over Moore Irons's head like a dark cloud. In 1997, at the age of 16, Irons was arrested for a burglary and assault he didn't commit, for which he would receive a sentence of 50 years. She met him at Missouri's Jefferson City Correctional Center in 2007, the summer before she was about to start college at the University of Connecticut, through a family member who led the prison's church choir, of which Irons was a member. Both devout Christians, the two connected over their faith. After getting the approval of Moore Irons's mother, they began to correspond via letters and phone calls, developing a friendship that, after six years, ultimately turned romantic.
In 2016, Moore Irons began using her platform to advocate for racial justice and legal reform, which led to her stepping back from basketball in 2019 to launch a sweeping campaign drawing attention to Irons's case. Her efforts tipped the scale: His convictions were overturned in March of 2020, 23 years after his initial arrest.
Nine days following his release that July, Irons and Moore Irons were married, and soon after, they welcomed their son, Jonathan Hughston Irons Jr., who is now one.
This story is from the June - July 2023 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
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This story is from the June - July 2023 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
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