Part 2: What Happened to A.J. Moye and His Unforgettable Block?
4/14/2020 7:30:00 AM | Men's Basketball, History
Note: IU Athletics is partnering with IU Press to share chapters from some of their recently-published books on IU Sports. The following is a chapter from Unknown, Untold, and Unbelievable Stories about IU Sports, published by IU Press in 2018. The second-half of this chapter will appear tomorrow on IUHoosiers.com. Additional details about this book can be found here.
The first part of this chapter can be read HERE.
With that decision made, the next challenge for Moye was deciding what to do next.
His first decision was to return to the U.S. to see family. He headed to California, where he was reunited with his father, Malume, and his two younger brothers, Anson and Austen. Both had been toddlers when Moye first arrived in Bloomington as a college freshman in 2000, and A.J. had had limited involvement in their lives. By 2011, Moye's siblings were members of the Oaks Christian H.S. boys' basketball team just outside of Los Angeles, and they'd asked their older brother to help them train for the upcoming season.
What started out as an opportunity to build a stronger bond with his younger brothers quickly blossomed into much more. Moye began training both of his brothers, before additional members of the Oaks Christian H.S. team joined in. Eventually, other area players asked Moye to work them out as well, and the next thing Moye knew he was asked to serve as an assistant coach at his brothers' high school for the 2011-12 season.
After one year as an assistant coach, Moye was named the school's head coach in 2012. He spent two years in charge of the program, helping develop future college players Chass Bryan (USC), Aleks Abrams (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), Jordan Flannery (UC San Diego) and his brother Anson (Long Beach State). But after leading Oaks Christian to the Div. IV-AA state championship game in 2014, Moye decided to leave to pursue other opportunities.
His departure from Oaks Christian didn't represent an exit from the game of basketball – far from it. His involvement in the sport is now two-fold. He serves as assistant coach at Oak Park (Cal.) H.S., which won the Class 3A state championship in 2016. He also serves as the Master Coach of Basketball at The Sports Academy Foundation, where he trains some of California's elite youth basketball players as well as several professional players Nick Young (Golden State Warriors) and Jrue Holiday (New Orleans Pelicans), among others.
When he moved to California he didn't necessarily see coaching and basketball training in his future, but he couldn't be happier with how things have panned out.
"I love my life," Moye says. "I knew (after I stopped playing) I wanted to be around the game that I loved. Basketball is part of my DNA."
He's also able to spend more time with his daughter. Moye said Solona will be living in California when she starts high school, and he's excited that basketball will no longer keep him from being involved in her life on a daily basis.
"She's exactly like me," Moye says. "She dresses like me, plays basketball like me. Now she's turning into a young woman.
"She's my best friend. When I'm down and out, when I'm happy, when I'm sad, I can always share those experiences with her."
While Moye's excited about his new path in life, playing basketball is still something he can't completely get out of his system. He still plays with many of the players that he trains, and says that they often encourage him to return to playing professionally.
But Moye says that isn't an option after his health scare.
"The thing about life is everyone at some point gets dealt an unfortunate hand. Sometimes it stinks. But you have to keep fighting and play the cards you're dealt," Moye says.
"That's the story of my life –I've tried to take whatever circumstances I've faced on the court or in life and found a way to bounce back."
With his playing career behind him, Moye is all in on trying to create opportunities for today's youth basketball players. In some cases, it's training NBA-caliber players as they try to refine skills that are already among the world's best. In other cases, it's about trying to help a player develop to the point they can earn a college scholarship, which in turn can open athletic and academic doors that wouldn't be available otherwise.
And in some situations, it's about trying to help a player develop their skills to the point that they can make their high school basketball team.
No matter the goal, Moye has found it to be rewarding.
"I've been able to be a kid my whole life," Moye says. "I'm teaching the sport I love and I have the chance to spend time with kids and try to pass on some things that I've learned in my life. It's special."
It's also a special opportunity for those kids, who have an opportunity to learn the sport from a player who has won at the highest level in both high school and college, while also enjoying a successful professional career overseas.
Moye remains a bit of a cult figure among Hoosier basketball fans, but he admits that when he began training players in California, many didn't know who he was. Not only is he now more than a decade removed from the conclusion of his college career, but he's also nearly 2,000 miles from where he starred as a collegian.
But in this day and age, those kids quickly found out who he was, and why he's so well remembered by Indiana fans.
"A lot of these kids weren't even in school yet when I was playing at Indiana, and having been overseas for a number of years, they really didn't know who I was," Moye says. "So I'd train them, and then they'd come back the next day and say they looked me up on YouTube and say, 'hey, you blocked Boozer!'"
That he did – no matter what the boxscore says.
***
Like Hoosier fans, Moye won't soon forget that play, that game or that 2002 season. Indiana captured the Big Ten title, marking the program's first league crown since 1993. The improbable Final Four run was the school's first trip to the national semifinals since 1992, and the win over top-seeded Duke is likely the program's biggest upset victory ever in the NCAA Tournament.
"I love that team," Moye says. "That team was my favorite that I ever played on. I played on some great teams in high school, in AAU, teams that won titles as a pro. But that team, we were a band of brothers. We would do anything to help each other be successful."
Successful they were. Jared Jeffries was named the Big Ten's Most Valuable Player, and guard Dane Fife was tabbed as the league's Defensive Player of the Year. Tom Coverdale led the Big Ten in assists and Jeff Newton led the conference in blocks.
But for all of those individual accolades, what 2002 will be remembered for was the victory over Duke and Moye's defining play as an Indiana Hoosier.
"(The win over Duke) was a beautiful moment – exhilarating," Moye says. "Those final 10 or 15 minutes of that game, it was the most exciting basketball of my life."
"As for the play - a lot of people remember that play, and that's humbling. It's human nature to want to be remembered for something. Eventually I hope I'm remembered for more than just blocking a shot.
"But maybe that was my moment in time."
The first part of this chapter can be read HERE.
With that decision made, the next challenge for Moye was deciding what to do next.
His first decision was to return to the U.S. to see family. He headed to California, where he was reunited with his father, Malume, and his two younger brothers, Anson and Austen. Both had been toddlers when Moye first arrived in Bloomington as a college freshman in 2000, and A.J. had had limited involvement in their lives. By 2011, Moye's siblings were members of the Oaks Christian H.S. boys' basketball team just outside of Los Angeles, and they'd asked their older brother to help them train for the upcoming season.
What started out as an opportunity to build a stronger bond with his younger brothers quickly blossomed into much more. Moye began training both of his brothers, before additional members of the Oaks Christian H.S. team joined in. Eventually, other area players asked Moye to work them out as well, and the next thing Moye knew he was asked to serve as an assistant coach at his brothers' high school for the 2011-12 season.
After one year as an assistant coach, Moye was named the school's head coach in 2012. He spent two years in charge of the program, helping develop future college players Chass Bryan (USC), Aleks Abrams (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), Jordan Flannery (UC San Diego) and his brother Anson (Long Beach State). But after leading Oaks Christian to the Div. IV-AA state championship game in 2014, Moye decided to leave to pursue other opportunities.
His departure from Oaks Christian didn't represent an exit from the game of basketball – far from it. His involvement in the sport is now two-fold. He serves as assistant coach at Oak Park (Cal.) H.S., which won the Class 3A state championship in 2016. He also serves as the Master Coach of Basketball at The Sports Academy Foundation, where he trains some of California's elite youth basketball players as well as several professional players Nick Young (Golden State Warriors) and Jrue Holiday (New Orleans Pelicans), among others.
When he moved to California he didn't necessarily see coaching and basketball training in his future, but he couldn't be happier with how things have panned out.
"I love my life," Moye says. "I knew (after I stopped playing) I wanted to be around the game that I loved. Basketball is part of my DNA."
He's also able to spend more time with his daughter. Moye said Solona will be living in California when she starts high school, and he's excited that basketball will no longer keep him from being involved in her life on a daily basis.
"She's exactly like me," Moye says. "She dresses like me, plays basketball like me. Now she's turning into a young woman.
"She's my best friend. When I'm down and out, when I'm happy, when I'm sad, I can always share those experiences with her."
While Moye's excited about his new path in life, playing basketball is still something he can't completely get out of his system. He still plays with many of the players that he trains, and says that they often encourage him to return to playing professionally.
But Moye says that isn't an option after his health scare.
"The thing about life is everyone at some point gets dealt an unfortunate hand. Sometimes it stinks. But you have to keep fighting and play the cards you're dealt," Moye says.
"That's the story of my life –I've tried to take whatever circumstances I've faced on the court or in life and found a way to bounce back."
With his playing career behind him, Moye is all in on trying to create opportunities for today's youth basketball players. In some cases, it's training NBA-caliber players as they try to refine skills that are already among the world's best. In other cases, it's about trying to help a player develop to the point they can earn a college scholarship, which in turn can open athletic and academic doors that wouldn't be available otherwise.
And in some situations, it's about trying to help a player develop their skills to the point that they can make their high school basketball team.
No matter the goal, Moye has found it to be rewarding.
"I've been able to be a kid my whole life," Moye says. "I'm teaching the sport I love and I have the chance to spend time with kids and try to pass on some things that I've learned in my life. It's special."
It's also a special opportunity for those kids, who have an opportunity to learn the sport from a player who has won at the highest level in both high school and college, while also enjoying a successful professional career overseas.
Moye remains a bit of a cult figure among Hoosier basketball fans, but he admits that when he began training players in California, many didn't know who he was. Not only is he now more than a decade removed from the conclusion of his college career, but he's also nearly 2,000 miles from where he starred as a collegian.
But in this day and age, those kids quickly found out who he was, and why he's so well remembered by Indiana fans.
"A lot of these kids weren't even in school yet when I was playing at Indiana, and having been overseas for a number of years, they really didn't know who I was," Moye says. "So I'd train them, and then they'd come back the next day and say they looked me up on YouTube and say, 'hey, you blocked Boozer!'"
That he did – no matter what the boxscore says.
***
Like Hoosier fans, Moye won't soon forget that play, that game or that 2002 season. Indiana captured the Big Ten title, marking the program's first league crown since 1993. The improbable Final Four run was the school's first trip to the national semifinals since 1992, and the win over top-seeded Duke is likely the program's biggest upset victory ever in the NCAA Tournament.
"I love that team," Moye says. "That team was my favorite that I ever played on. I played on some great teams in high school, in AAU, teams that won titles as a pro. But that team, we were a band of brothers. We would do anything to help each other be successful."
Successful they were. Jared Jeffries was named the Big Ten's Most Valuable Player, and guard Dane Fife was tabbed as the league's Defensive Player of the Year. Tom Coverdale led the Big Ten in assists and Jeff Newton led the conference in blocks.
But for all of those individual accolades, what 2002 will be remembered for was the victory over Duke and Moye's defining play as an Indiana Hoosier.
"(The win over Duke) was a beautiful moment – exhilarating," Moye says. "Those final 10 or 15 minutes of that game, it was the most exciting basketball of my life."
"As for the play - a lot of people remember that play, and that's humbling. It's human nature to want to be remembered for something. Eventually I hope I'm remembered for more than just blocking a shot.
"But maybe that was my moment in time."
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