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Candace Parker, Maya Moore and their legacy in women’s basketball

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This weekend was like a touching closing of a monumental chapter in women’s basketball.

Maya Moore-Irons was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday. On Sunday, Candace Parker announced she was leaving the WNBA. Parker, who signed a one-year contract with the Las Vegas Aces in February, is leaving the sport a yr after Moore announced she would officially retire from basketball in 2023 after a four-year hiatus from the WNBA.

When you ask modern players, whether college or WNBA, who they emulated and idolized as kids, they almost all the time answer: Parker or Moore. Both are probably your current favorite player’s favorite (if it wasn’t still Parker as of Sunday).

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With the departure of Moore and Parker, the WNBA is without two of its most influential and impactful superstars. It’s a reality that is hard for a lot of women’s basketball fans to swallow, especially since excitement for a game that Parker and Moore helped create has never been higher.

With Parker’s departure comes a pervasive void, very like Moore’s, of not with the ability to properly rejoice the tip of two transformative talents. And while we’ll never see Moore or Parker dazzle on the basketball court again, their mark on the sport and the present generation able to catapult women’s basketball into the following chapter are all over the place.

Chicago Sky forward Candace Parker celebrates together with her teammates after winning Game 4 of the 2021 WNBA Finals against the Phoenix Mercury on October 17, 2021, at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

Kena Krutsinger/NBAE via Getty Images

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On the sphere, Parker was unlike any player we had ever seen.

After a legendary profession at Tennessee, where she won two national championships and was named national player of the yr twice, Parker began her WNBA profession in 2008 as the primary player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the identical season. Parker’s momentous rookie season heralded a legendary profession that included three championships, two MVP awards, seven All-Star nominations, Finals MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. After becoming the primary woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game, Parker was also the primary to dunk multiple times in a WNBA season.

In Parker style, she ended her 16-year profession just because it began – in a historic moment. Her third championship, won with the Aces last season, made her the primary player in league history to win championships with three different franchises.

Parker, who also won two Olympic gold medals and countless championships overseas, is the one player in WNBA history to rank in the highest 10 in points, rebounds, assists and blocks. Her versatility and dominance at 6’1″ helped usher in a brand new era in women’s basketball and not using a game-changing position.

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At age 29, Moore has already won 4 WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx, was Finals MVP, league MVP and was a six-time All-Star. This was preceded by a dominant collegiate profession in which she won two national titles and was named national player of the yr twice.

Moore, who also won two Olympic gold medals, two FIBA ​​World Championship gold medals and two EuroLeague titles, was a unprecedented talent on the court. Her playing was graceful and dominant, creative and fierce. Her jump shot was clean and her ability to get a bucket was unmatched. Moore was the primary women’s basketball player to sign a contract with Jordan Brand. When the brand launched a billboard campaign in 2018 in which Moore recreated Jordan’s 1989 “Wings” poster, it appeared like a fitting stamp for the face of women’s basketball. The following season, Moore announced that she wouldn’t play in the 2019 season. Even though Moore’s profession had been decorated as much as that time, it still felt prefer it was just getting began.

The play of each Parker and Moore has energized women’s basketball fans and attracted latest fans. However, their influence begins only on the pitch.

Minnesota Lynx defender Maya Moore (right) brings the ball up the court while Connecticut Sun defender Alyssa Thomas (left) defends during a game at Mohegan Sun Arena on August 17, 2018 in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

Parker’s influence is wide-ranging. Parker, who had her daughter Lailaa after her rookie season, has all the time advocated for moms who’re skilled athletes, demonstrating the power to thrive in each.

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In 2010, Parker became the ninth WNBA player to have her own signature shoes. Since then, she has grow to be the one Black woman to wear the signature shoe in the WNBA.

As an analyst and commentator at TNT, where she has been working since 2018, she became the primary woman to function a game analyst in the course of the NBA All-Star Game in 2023. In 2021, she was the primary woman on the duvet of NBA 2K, and she also co-owns the NWSL team Angel City FC together with her daughter.

Moore’s off-court influence centers on her social activism. In 2016, she took part in an illustration organized by the captains of the Minnesota Lynx team, who wore T-shirts with the words “Change starts with us” in the course of the pre-game press conference after the police shooting of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Justice and Accountability” and “Black Lives Matter” on the back together with the names Sterling and Castile.

“If we take this time to see that this is a human issue and speak up together, we can significantly reduce fear and create change,” Moore said in 2016.

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In 2019, two years after winning her fourth WNBA championship, Moore left the WNBA to advocate for the discharge of Jonathan Irons, who was sentenced to 50 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary after being convicted of burglary and assault on the age of 16. His conviction was overturned in July 2020. Moore’s sacrifice to assist ultimately free Irons, made at a time when she was widely considered the face of women’s basketball, made her a pioneer in athlete activism and drew significant attention to the failings of the U.S. criminal justice system criminal system and the necessity for reforms.


Parker and Moore left a mark on the game that may likely not be fully realized for years. It’s a shame they will not give you the option to be a part of the momentous wave the game is currently experiencing. However, much of their legacy is reflected directly in the sport’s latest generation of stars, lots of whom have been inspired by Moore and Parker.

Ace forward A’ja Wilson, the reigning WNBA Finals MVP, and Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston, the league’s 2023 Rookie of the Year, called Parker their GOAT. Caitlin Clark, who’s entering her highly anticipated debut season in the WNBA after retiring from her college profession because the all-time leading scorer in NCAA basketball history, reiterates that Moore was her childhood basketball hero.

This is the life cycle of the sports avant-garde. While we may never give you the option to observe them ceaselessly or resolve when their on-court careers will end, we will still enjoy watching their legacy live.

Sean Hurd is a author for Andscape, primarily covering women’s basketball. The pinnacle of his athletic development got here on the age of 10, when he was voted camper of the week at Josh Childress’ basketball camp.

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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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