Don’t Let Maya Moore Go Unnoticed

There is an amazing basketball player in the Twin Cities right now. That player is not Kevin Love, I’m sure he’s not in the Cities anyway, or Ricky Rubio or anyone on the Minnesota Timberwolves. It’s no one on either of the Minnesota Golden Gopher’s basketball squads either.

Hidden away in the middle of summer is the WNBA season and it goes virtually unnoticed in Minnesota which is a scary thought. The Minnesota Lynx have made the WNBA Finals the past three years and have won two championships, but no one in the Land of Lakes really pays attention until the ladies get into the playoffs. I shutter to think what happens in markets that have a WNBA team that isn’t in the middle of a dynasty, I digress.

We’re all missing something great. We need to stop ignoring Maya Moore.

It took double overtime for the Lynx to claim victory on Tuesday night, but it did allow Moore to accomplish something quite impressive. Moore scored 48 points in the victory which tied for the second most points scored in a WNBA game. She was 16-of-30 from the field, including an astounding 7-of-9 from three-point land. This is just one game.

Moore has been having an insane season. She is the reigning Western Conference player of the week, winning the award two straight times. She also won the award in Week One for three titles total this season. There has only been nine weeks of the WNBA season meaning that Moore has been the best player in the conference hands down for a third of the season.

Moore also won the Western Conference Player of the Month award for May and has to be the favorite to win it again for July.

It looks like Moore is headed for her first WNBA MVP award, an honor she should have won a season ago. The only person standing in her way is Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury. Taurasi has been named Western Conference Player of the Week twice and is the conference’s player of the month for June, but it still looks like the MVP is Moore’s to lose.

Moore is only one of four WNBAers currently averaging 20 or more points. Moore leads the way averaging 24.1 points per game with second place Skylar Diggins putting up 21 per game. Taurasi is the highest to not break the 20 mark, averaging 17.8 per game.

The Twins are losing, Kevin Love is on everyone’s minds and Minnesota Vikings training camp is just around the corner, but don’t let Maya Moore go unnoticed. Have some fun in Target Center for a change.