UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers dedicates ESPYs speech to Black women; Maya Moore accepts Arthur Ashe Courage Award

UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers took home yet another award Saturday night, winning the ESPY for Best College Athlete, Women’s Sports.

As she stood in the rain on the ESPYs rooftop stage in New York City to accept the honor, the sophomore phenom deflected the attention away from herself and used her platform to celebrate Black women and advocate for more media coverage of Black athletes.

“With the light that I have now as a white woman who leads a Black-led sport and celebrated here, I want to shed a light on Black women,” Bueckers said after briefly thanking her family, friends, coaches and teammates. “They don’t get the media coverage that they deserve. They’ve given so much to the sport, the community and society as a whole and their value is undeniable.”

In her speech, Bueckers, the reigning national player of the year, pointed to the disproportionately low media coverage Black WNBA athletes get despite making up the vast majority of the league (80 percent) and awards winners, while challenging sports media to do better.

“I think it’s time for change,” Bueckers continued. “Sports media holds the key to storylines. Sports media and sponsors tell us who is valuable, and you have told the world that I mattered today, and everyone who voted, thank you. But I think we should use this power together to also celebrate Black women.”

Bueckers concluded her speech by acknowledged Black women trailblazers also being honored at the ESPYs, including James Madison pitcher Odicci Alexander, who was nominated alongside Bueckers for the award.

“To Maria Taylor, Robin Roberts, Maya Moore, Odicci Alexander. To all the incredible Black women in my life and on my teams. To Breonna Taylor and all the lives lost, and to those names who are not yet learned, but I hope to share, I stand behind you and I continue to follow you, follow your lead and fight for you guys so I just want to say thank you for everything.”

Maya Moore accepts Arthur Ashe Courage Award

Later in the evening, UConn legend Maya Moore received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, joining the ranks of previous winners Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela and Billie Jean King. The honor recognizes those who impact the world beyond the field or court.

One of the greatest to ever play in the game, Moore stepped away from basketball in Feb. 2019 to help overturn the wrongful conviction of Jonathan Irons, now her husband, and to dedicate her life to criminal justice reform, specifically fighting prosecutorial misconduct via her social action campaign Win With Justice.

Moore and Irons were in New York for her to receive the award. An excerpt from the upcoming ESPN 30-for-30 “Breakaway,” which chronicles Moore’s journey, was shown prior to her speech.

“As athletes, we have unique power and influence over our culture and communities for what matters most,” Moore said Saturday. “One of the best ways that we role model this is being honest about our own humanity first. We are more than athletes. We are complex, multi-layered human beings created to know each other and to be known in real relationship.”

“This is win with justice. Loving your neighbor, especially the ones not exactly like you.”

Moore re-centered the conversation of her “sacrifice” of stepping away from basketball at the peak of her career to something else entirely unrelated to sports.

“These sacrifices we make in sports are great, but I would invite you to see them as just pointers to the sacrifices of life that matter most,” Moore said. “The ones that are centered around helping each other live to the fullest. Sacrificing the power you have to humanize someone else.

“Power is not meant to be gripped with a clenched fist or to be hoarded. Power is meant to be handled generously so we can thoughtfully empower one another to thrive in our communities, for love’s sake, championing our humanity before our ambitions.”

Four-time NCAA and two-time WNBA champ Breanna Stewart also took home the award for best WNBA player.

“It’s an honor to receive this award especially among all the other amazing players in this league,” Stewart said in a social media post. “In the WNBA, it’s bigger than basketball. We’re continuing to fight for social justice, for social change. We’re always at the forefront of it. And without the rest of this league, the players, I would not be here.”

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com