“My mom and I both had them,” she said. “It was exciting. I didn’t know how unique that was as an 8-year-old. I just saw Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson winning W.N.B.A. championships and playing amazing basketball, and I just wanted the shoe.”

She added: “Those things matter, especially when you’re young. There’s value there. Her work and talent were being rewarded. The investment was worthwhile because it inspired the next generation of women’s basketball players.”

Nate’ Burley walked through the corridors of Madison Square Garden wearing a Moore jersey. Burley, 13, of Middletown, N.Y., cheers for the Liberty but idolizes Moore, a former Connecticut star.

“When I wear my jersey at school, boys will ask me, ‘Who is Moore, and what is the Mayo Clinic?’” she said. (Like other teams in the league, the Lynx feature their marquee sponsor — in their case, the Mayo Clinic — on their jerseys instead of the team name.)

As a child, Moore did not know that it was unusual to have a sneaker named after a female player. Burley, however, never considered the possibility; she just assumed that only N.B.A. players had signature basketball shoes.

In 2011, Moore became the first female basketball player to sign an endorsement deal with Nike’s Jordan brand. In 2015, Nike produced its first retail shoe with Moore. The Jordan brand will release a two-shoe special collection on Sept. 30 billed as a tribute to Moore. But it will not be called Air Maya. The Moore-inspired Air Jordan 1 Retro High ($95) and Air Jordan 10 Retro ($140) will be sold in children’s extended sizes from 3.5 to 9.5. The shoes feature pops of fuchsia, one of Moore’s favorite colors, and personal touches such as “3:23” on the pull tab, for her favorite Bible verse, Colossians 3:23.

So what’s in a name? To sneaker heads and athletes, everything. A signature shoe signals that a player has arrived. It is a multimillion-dollar investment in a player’s success and marketability. It is less of a gamble to have a female player endorse an already established product line, and even less of a risk to roll out a player-edition shoe.