Good Morning POU! Today we feature Maya Moore and Sue Bird.
In high school, Maya Moore was the National Gatorade Player of the Year, the Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year, and a McDonald’s All-American. She played forward for the UConn women’s basketball team and won back to back national championships in 2009 and 2010. She was selected as the John Wooden Award winner in 2009 after leading Connecticut to an undefeated national championship.
The following season, Moore led Connecticut to its second straight national championship and continued its overall undefeated streak at 78; in the 2010–11 season, she led the Huskies in extending that streak to an NCAA both-gender record (all divisions) of 90. That season, Moore became the first female basketball player to sign with Air Jordan. After the 2017 season, her win–loss record in the U.S. since high school was 497–78.
Moore was the first overall pick in the 2011 WNBA draft and joined a Minnesota Lynx team that already featured all-star caliber players in Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, and Lindsay Whalen. Moore has won four WNBA championships (2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017), a WNBA Most Valuable Player Award (2014),a WNBA Finals MVP Award (2013), three WNBA All-Star Game MVPs (2015, 2017, and 2018), two Olympic gold medals (2012 and 2016), a WNBA Scoring Title (2014), and the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award (2011). She has also been selected to six WNBA All-Star teams and seven All-WNBA teams. The relative timing of the seasons of the WNBA and the top leagues in other countries has allowed Moore to compete throughout the year. In 2012, she won both the Spanish league title and EuroLeague title playing for Ros Casares Valencia. From 2013 to 2015, Moore also won the Chinese league title every year. Moore won a second Euroleague title playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg in 2018.
Moore is one of 11 women to earn an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA Championship, a FIBA World Cup gold and a WNBA Championship.
Suzanne Brigit Bird (born October 16, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who played her entire career with the Seattle Storm of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Bird was drafted first overall pick by the Storm in the 2002 WNBA draft and is considered one of the greatest players in WNBA history. As of 2024, Bird is the only WNBA player to win titles in three different decades. She held a front office position for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets as their Basketball Operations Associate. She has also played for three teams in the Russian league and holds dual citizenship with both U.S. and Israel.
In high school, Bird was the New York State Player of the Year, the New York Daily News Player of the Year, and a WBCA All-American. In her senior year on the undefeated University of Connecticut team in 2002, she won the Wade Trophy and the Naismith Award as College Player of the Year. She finished her University of Connecticut (UConn) career ranked first in three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage, and second in assists and steals. She won the Nancy Lieberman Award three times as the top point guard in the nation. Additionally, Bird led her UConn team to a record of 114–4.
Bird has won a joint-record four WNBA championships with the Storm (2004, 2010, 2018, 2020),[10] a historic five Olympic gold medals (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020), two NCAA Championships with UConn (2000, 2002); and four FIBA World Cups (2002, 2010, 2014, 2018). She is one of only 11 women to attain all four accolades. She is also a five-time EuroLeague Women champion (2007–2010, 2013). During her WNBA career, she has been selected to thirteen WNBA All-Star teams and eight All-WNBA teams. Additionally, she was voted by fans as one of the WNBA’s Top 15 Players of All Time in 2011, was voted into the WNBA Top 20@20 as one of the league’s top 20 players of all time in 2016, and was voted into The W25 as one of the league’s top 25 players of all time in 2021. Her fifth Olympic gold medal, at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, makes her one of only two Olympic basketball players—of either gender—ever to win five gold medals, with the other player being her US Olympic teammate Diana Taurasi.