Aliyah Boston's peace used to depend on basketball. Now it doesn't, and it's paying off for 3-time All-Star
Boston recently finished the "Housemate" book series and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley's "Uncommon Favor". Her next book delivery will include "Variety", "Too Late" and the "Silent Patient" all packed with psychological thrill and suspense.
"The crazy stuff? Yeah, that's me," Boston says.
Reading is Boston's way of getting away. Away from the pressure. Not only from the external pressure basketball brings, but also the internal pressure she places on herself to be perfect.
That's the battle for Boston. Perfectionism versus grace.
In her first two years in the WNBA, Boston would often condemn herself after missed shots or poor performances. However, in Year 3, the young woman from the U.S. Virgin Islands has learned how to walk in grace.
'You feel like nothing is good enough. You always put that pressure on yourself to a point where you almost take yourself out of the game before you're even out of there,' Boston said about the dangers of perfectionism. 'As a perfectionist, I always have to be great in everything I do, and sometimes that's taken me out of rhythm because I'm like 'Why am I messing up, why am I messing up?'
'When in reality, it's a basketball game and you should not rely on basketball for your happiness. That's something in this third season, I've gotten a lot better at.'
Boston airballed a 3 to close the half in the July 3 matchup against the Aces. She responded with a smile and shared a high five with teammate Kelsey Mitchell —a small moment, but a mark of immense progress.
Recognizing every day she's able to play basketball as a blessing has helped Boston combat invasive thoughts. She's become more patient with herself and if there's a mishap, there's a simple antidote.
'Go back to work,' she said. "Basketball is a game. Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn't.'
Fever coach Stephanie White said she talked with Boston at the beginning of the offseason about her being used as a 'hub.' White and the Fever recognized Boston played with her back to the basket in Year 1 and wanted to utilize Boston as a decision-maker this year.
White called Boston a 'high IQ' player and admitted at the beginning of the season, her star player deferred 'too much' to facilitating. The two had a conversation in which White reminded Boston although she trusts her to make the right pass, she urged her to take advantage of scoring opportunities.
The three-time WNBA All-Star is averaging 15.6 points per game and 3.7 assists, both career-highs. Boston is also averaging a career low in turnovers with 1.4 per game. To White, Boston's patience with herself has contributed to a stellar season.
'She's a Type A perfectionist and wants everything to go right all the time, so she's hard on herself. Your greatest strength can sometimes be your greatest weakness,' White said. 'Giving herself grace, allowing herself to go through that, recognize that, and letting it go has helped her bounce back.'
Aces forward A'ja Wilson is familiar with the pressure Boston feels. Wilson and Boston are products of Staley's decorated South Carolina program. In her first six seasons, Wilson won three MVPs and two WNBA championships.
While Wilson said Staley prepared all her players to 'be the best pros we can be,' she empathized with Boston's early career experience.
'You've got to know how to carry yourself in different spaces, and that's something I see in Aliyah with how she's handled herself in this franchise and throughout the league,' Wilson told IndyStar. 'And it's not easy every single day waking up and being the star or the big that everyone relies on, but she still shows up and does that every single day.'
As Boston navigates her fight with perfection, she has helped her teammates process their mental struggles.
Forward Natasha Howard shot 28% from the free-throw line in the first six games this season. In the past 10 games, Howard is shooting 85% from the charity stripe. The three-time WNBA champion credited Boston for her improvement.
'She would tell me, 'Get out of your head. It's that little voice in the back of your head telling you you ain't gon' make it, so block that out and tell yourself you're going to make these free throws.'
'I've been making my free throws ever since she told me that,' Howard said with a laugh.
Though learning how to give herself grace took time, extending it toward others was never an issue for Boston. When Mitchell's father died unexpectedly in March 2024, the Fever guard said Boston was there in 'every way' and said having genuine people like Boston during that season 'feels good.'
'Partnerships are always impactful, and when you can have a good bond with your teammates and sisterhood along with that, it's a great thing to have. You don't find it often,' Mitchell told IndyStar. 'So when you find good, genuine people like AB, you grow to accept and love people like her.'
Boston's positive reputation stems back to her high school days at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. Worcester girls basketball coach Dan Sullivan coached the boys team during Boston's time at the private school, but was her advisor on her senior project, which focused on media broadcasting.
With the likes of Staley and Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma attending her games, all the lights were on Boston. However, Sullivan said Boston tried to deflect conversations about herself while on campus. She cared more about her friends, teammates and school life.
'She was friends with everyone on campus and her lively personality endeared her to the community,' Sullivan said. 'If not for her height, you wouldn't think she was a basketball player because she never talked about the attention and the recruiting.'
Wayne Bolden was Boston's assistant coach at Worcester. He echoed Sullivan's remarks.
'She knew she was gifted but didn't necessarily show it,' Bolden said. 'She just went out and was a person on campus.'
Boston joined South Carolina in 2019. She led the Gamecocks to a national title in 2022 and was a two-time Naismith Defensive Player of the Year during her four years under Staley.
The Fever drafted Boston with the first overall pick in 2023. Upon entering the WNBA, Boston had to re-learn who she was.
'Coming out of college, your identity is basketball because that's what you do,' Boston said. 'Fresh off a national championship, Aliyah was a college superstar that had to figure out the new world that doesn't involve text books. Coming into this new world was just finding who I am and what I like to do.
'When you get into the real world, outside of college basketball, there's so many opportunities to change who you are to fit in, to be liked by everyone and that's never been a priority for me. Who I am is who I am. Those I attract are meant for me and those that I don't it's okay.'
With stardom comes a temptation to change that Boston hasn't succumbed to. But the internal wrestle between perfectionism and grace will undoubtedly continue.
After all, Boston is an athlete. More so, she's human.
And woven into human nature is a desire to be the best.
But day by day, that fight gets a little easier for Boston as she remembers her skill and on-court performance don't determine her greatness.
Greatness is already in her.
'Every morning I get up and I listen to my devotionals. A scripture I've been holding to this season is, 'If God is in her, she shall not fail,'' Boston said. 'Whether that's a basketball win or loss, you just think that, 'God is with me no matter what and every trial, every tribulation is to work out for your good.'
'This life I'm living is a blessing, not just to be an athlete but to be a role model to other people and to live out my dream, which is playing professional basketball.'
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New York Times
21 minutes ago
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Indianapolis Star
22 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
'We beat up on each other, too:' First Fever team looks back, talks Caitlin Clark-era of WNBA
Chantel Tremitiere works in the elite, high profile space of global athlete brand marketing for Nike, striking big-dollar deals and battling to make the "swoosh" the logo of the stars. She is also a former WNBA player who watches the league closely. And she watches the Indiana Fever even more closely. The Fever were Tremitiere's team, the expansion team she helped launch in 2000 as the original point guard, the Caitlin Clark for the first year of the Fever franchise. And she's only half joking when she says she'd love to see her original Fever roster, players now in their late 40s and early 50s, take on the 2025 team at a practice. Those original Fever players, all in the WNBA at the beginning, for that matter, were tough as nails, she says. "About 80%, 85% of that league wouldn't have got through practice back in (the day). If you say they're hitting now, like nah, get an elbow by Lisa Leslie or Teresa Witherspoon," says Tremitiere, 55. 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The WNBA was its own sisterhood, a group of women who loved basketball and desperately wanted to see their league reach success. But those players 25 years ago had no idea. And they certainly never dreamed just how explosive the WNBA would become, mostly because of a player named Caitlin Clark, but only because of the trail they blazed. "If you just look at the history of where sports started, men and women, it's always that trajectory of it possibly taking off, right? So it's all you have," said Rita Williams, a guard on the first Fever team. "If you look at the NBA, you have the pioneers that started it. And if you look at the WNBA, you have those pioneers as well. And I'm one of them. "And now you see where it is. And of course, you're like, man, I would love to be playing right now. But also, when you're the pioneers, you have to get it off the ground. And so there's also some nostalgia to it, too, to be a part of." It was June 2000 and the world hadn't ended when the clock switched from 1999 from the feared apocalyptic phenomena called Y2K. And so the world moved onward, Nintendo announcing it would launch the GameCube and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston tying the knot and the dawn of reality TV with a quirky show called "Big Brother". In Indianapolis, a brand-new basketball arena had opened to great fanfare, a shiny modern-day fieldhouse boasting all the bells and whistles wrapped in a retro feel. It was perfect timing for Conseco Fieldhouse to open its doors. The Indiana Pacers made the NBA finals in 2000, getting to host home games at a place national media raved about. But this year, for the first time, the Pacers weren't the only professional basketball team to take the court. Ads were splashed all over the city -- "In 49 states it's just basketball. But this is Indiana" -- of a WNBA expansion team named the Indiana Fever. 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The ownership was excited. We had a lot of fans." And the team had a lot of hope that this historic sports franchise they were launching would one day be bigger than they could even imagine. That first Fever team was led by interim coach Anne Donovan, beloved by the players as a caring leader with a wicked basketball IQ. Donovan, who died in 2018, was filling in for Nell Fortner, who sat out the Fever's 2000 season to coach the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team to a gold medal. The Fever's first season wasn't necessarily pretty. The team went 9-23 and finished 7th in the Eastern Conference. "The Fever was an expansion team so our roster, it wasn't the strongest roster in the league," said Fortner, who now coaches the Canadian Olympic women's basketball team. "It was just a struggle, just getting the amount of talent that you needed to play at that level. And to me, that's the biggest difference between now and then is there's just so much more depth of talent to go around the league right now." Usha Gilmore, a guard on the inaugural Fever team, was coming off a college career that ended in a Final Four appearance with Rutgers. "It was rough, especially after you're so used to winning," said Gilmore, athletic director at the Illinois Institute of Technology. "Now you're on a team that's starting for the first time, and it has to go through growing pains, and you have to be a part of that." But the record didn't really matter in the whole scheme of things, she said. What happened that first season was magical -- because just having a WNBA team in Indy was magical. The Fever ranked second in the league for attendance their first season. "We were playing in very full arenas and they were excited," said Maxwell, director of sports for the National Federation of State High School Associations. "It wasn't like people just coming in. We're talking Tuesday and Wednesday night, midweek. I mean, there's 10,000 people in there." This was an era where, for the first time, little girls could dream of playing pro basketball in the United States. This was a time when the players of the WNBA -- some born before Title IX was even passed -- were living out a career they didn't even know was possible. "I loved playing for the Fever when I got there. Anne allowed us to play free. It was like everybody was coming in trying to earn their spot," said Williams, who runs Elevate Sports Academy in Sandy Springs, Georgia, and is also an athletic director at a private school. "So everybody's just coming in fresh and new." In 2000, players weren't expecting superstar treatment in this fledgling league, and they weren't complaining. The average salary in the WNBA at the time was $55,000. There were no charter flights or multimillion-dollar sponsors clamoring to sign players. "And, you know, kids these days, they're complaining, something about we're tired," said Tremitiere. "Like, nah. I was playing 38 minutes a game. And there'd be days where we played L.A. on Friday, had to get on a plane on Saturday morning and play Houston on Saturday night. There were back to backs when we had to fly commercially. So the accommodations are nowhere near the same. Yeah, they're spoiled these days." The players of the original Fever roster were put up in apartments. They had their own place to live, but transportation was shared. One car for two players. There were a lot of runs to fast food for dinners and a lot of stops at the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, which was across the street from Conseco. "And I hated it. When that damn 'Hot' sign went on, we had to stop," Tremitiere said. "It's probably why we didn't go to the playoffs the first year, because maybe we were eating too many Krispy Kremes." On the court, the players were treated like stars and they were embraced by their male basketball counterparts of the Indiana Pacers. Williams remembers the "really great seats" the Fever team was given for the Pacers' playoff games. They felt like they were truly a part of the community. The Pacers, too, were showing up for the Fever. "They talk about NBA fan support now? No, Reggie Miller, Jermaine O'Neal, they were repping since 2000 and early on," said Tremitiere. "So it was just a really, really good environment." But where the WNBA is now, standing alone as its own pro basketball entity, doesn't compare to what Gilmore was a part of. "And I think that's what gives us all the warm and fuzzies because it's finally reaching a level it needed to reach," she said. "This is the level that we've been praying for and fighting for. I'm not saying it was lackluster. You still had your superstars. You still drew your crowds when you played. So I think it was where it was supposed to be during that time." The decades that followed after the Fever's first season, the WNBA had its moments. It had incredible players -- Tamika Catchings, Sheryl Swoopes, Maya Moore, Teresa Witherspoon, Lisa Leslie, big names who electrified the fans. But for some reason, the past star players of the league didn't capture the attention of the nation like Clark, who debuted in 2024. And with Clark's arrival, the league has come under a major spotlight, both good and bad. "There's a media narrative out there that certain players in the league are getting beat up on purpose. And that's more than Caitlin, right? The media is mostly about her, which is unfair for her," said Tremitiere. "But I don't think the players see a racial divide in the league. I think that it's a media thing." Clark is a "hooper," Tremitiere said, just like the original players of the WNBA. "I think Caitlin is an amazing player. And, you know, I'm glad she plays for the Indiana Fever," she said. "I don't know that there are many people who wouldn't want to be her teammates on the floor. I respect what she's doing. I respect any player that has that much media attention on them. I respect any player that doesn't fold and she hasn't folded. "The scrutiny is on her. I just wish the magnifying glass that the media puts on Caitlin, they would start using to amplify some other players in the league." What Clark is doing for the league, Gilmore said, "is phenomenal. Just to see the growth is a beautiful thing. And I'm proud to say that I was one of the ones that got us kicked off and started." The explosion of Clark and other players in the league, Maxwell attributes to a platform that she and other WNBA players 25 years ago didn't have. "They are marketing themselves. They are a brand outside of the WNBA which brings more attention to the games because, 'Hey, I saw her in a commercial,' or 'I saw her on social media,' or 'I heard her on a podcast,'" Maxwell said. "They see them outside of the sport and they're like, 'Oh, I want to go see them play.'" When Maxwell goes to Fever games now, she sees a whole new wave of fans who look different from the fans who watched her play. "They're younger. You have boys, little boys, wearing jerseys. You have dads bringing (their kids)," she said. "We had women who were primarily out of that Title IX wave, just super excited that we finally have professional women's basketball in the United States. And they came out and supported in droves." When she's in Gainbridge watching the Fever these days, she might run into four or five people who remember her. "And I'm like, 'Wow, you've been around for a while.'" And it's those fans who hold a very special place in Maxwell's heart. Those fans who have been there from the beginning. Fortner wishes what is happening now in the WNBA would have happened a long time ago, decades ago when she could have been part of it as a player. "But I'm fortunate to even just be here to watch it," she said. "Just the level of play has consistently gotten better and better and better. And that's been really fun to watch." Fortner credits the growth of talent in the WNBA directly to the league, which has worked tirelessly for nearly three decades to put out a product to help young girls aspire to be professional basketball players. "They see them on TV all the time and so it's just a normal thing, just like little boys growing up and seeing football and basketball on TV all the time," Fortner said. "Well, now, for the last 25 years, little girls have seen women playing basketball and now we've just got a lot more kids who want to do it." Gilmore thinks back to her days in the league, to her days on that first Fever team and compares it to today's game. "It's a beautiful thing and I'm so happy for the success," she said. "Now, hopefully we can get to that point of competitive salary. It's getting better but it's not where it needs to be. We've still got a lot of growing to do. But I'm really impressed at where we are." For Maxwell, she said she is proud to have been a part of that inaugural Fever team, a roster of players who paved the way for today's WNBA. "We had a lot of fun," said Maxwell. "We didn't win a lot of games, but we had a lot of fun."
Indianapolis Star
22 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
Caitlin Clark's 4 different muscle injuries better than aggravating same injury, per doctor
Caitlin Clark spent much of the WNBA off-season in the weight room, getting stronger, building muscle, revealing biceps that went viral in a photo, to come out with an edge in her second year with the Indiana Fever. And research shows very clearly, said Dr. Jason Koh, that "getting stronger is associated with decreased risk of muscle strains," especially at elite-level sports. Yet, Clark is out with injury again, this time a right groin injury that will cause her to miss the WNBA All-Star competition this weekend. She suffered her fourth muscle injury of the season in the final seconds of the Fever's win over Connecticut on Tuesday. "I'm incredibly sad and disappointed to say I can't participate in the 3-point contest or the All-Star game," Clark posted to X Thursday. "I have to rest my body." And that is a smart decision, said Koh, a sports medicine doctor who is chair of orthopedic surgery at Endeavor Health in suburban Chicago, the chief medical officer for the Chicago Fire soccer team and previously was a team physician for the Chicago Cubs. "If she hasn't recovered enough (and she played), she could potentially get injured again. If something is partially healed or there's some scar tissue, it can get aggravated again, and that might slow down her ability to play later in the season," he said. "Or it might delay her return to the team for games that could get them into the playoffs." IndyStar talked in detail with Koh about Clark's latest injury, what it is and what it means in light of her three other injuries this season -- Clark's left quad tightness that kept her out of the preseason opener, a quad strain in May that led to missing five games and a left groin injury that kept her out another five. Koh has not treated or seen Clark as a patient. Clark's latest groin injury is her fourth separate muscle injury of the season. "And typically when we think about a groin injury, we think about the muscles and tendons that help move the leg. There are muscles called the adductors, and a groin strain is involving the muscles on the inside part of your thigh that help you bring your leg across your body," said Koh. "So crossing over or cutting from side to side or suddenly having to cut one way but your muscles are still contracting a different way, that's what happens." It's an injury Koh sees a lot in professional soccer players who are running at fast speeds, then they cut or pivot. Koh, who has been following Clark since her Iowa days (his brother-in-law is a professor of surgery at the University of Iowa), said he saw the pain in her face Tuesday. "My sense is she looked pretty uncomfortable and I know she's really tough," he said. "So this must have been something that really bothered her to take her out." There are different levels of strains of the muscles, said Koh, "and I think we've probably, all of us may have had strained your calf or your hamstring at some point, and sometimes it gets better in just a few minutes. And then sometimes, it might take a few days." For professional athletes, their injuries typically happen under much greater force, he said. "And so if it's a bad enough strain, it can take several weeks to recover." Clark's left groin injury, which the Fever said was revealed when she reported pain after the team's West Coast road trip, led to an MRI. Clark then missed four more regular-season games, as well as the Commissioner's Cup championship, and came back July 9. Six days later, Clark suffered a right groin injury. MRIs are used in groin injuries to show the amount of tissue damage, which can occur in several different areas, said Koh. "Sometimes, it's where the tendon attaches to the bone and sometimes it's in the muscle and then sometimes it's where the tendon attaches to the muscle," he said. "And fortunately, almost all of these can be treated without surgery and will heal, but it can take some time to heal." IndyStar asked Koh, from a medical standpoint, if it is better that Clark has had four separate injuries versus continuing to injure the same muscle. "To me, it's a good sign that she hasn't re-injured the other things, which tells us that she can heal pretty well. So to that extent, I think that if she's going to get injured, it's probably better to get an injury in a different part rather than keep re-injuring the same thing because sometimes that indicates it's having a hard time healing," he said. "And she was able to heal those other injuries, so I think that's a good sign." If Clark doesn't need surgery for her latest injury, which Koh said would only be required in an extreme case, she likely wouldn't be out for the season. "The tissue takes some time to heal. We've all seen this when you get a cut, there's a clot that forms, and then it forms scar tissue, and then it becomes finally more soft and more normal again," he said. "That's what's happening inside the body with how it's healing. And then, over time, it gets remodeled and changes from that scar into something that comes back to like normal muscle." The key is to rest the patient so that the tissue has a chance to heal "and get things to stick together," Koh said. "And then gradually start decreasing the motion and then eventually some strengthening to sort of retrain the tissue to heal in the right way so that she gets her strength back," he said. "And meanwhile I'm sure that she's doing a bunch of other activities to keep herself in good shape." While Clark said she won't be competing in All-Star weekend, "I will still be at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for all the action, and I'm looking forward to helping Sandy (Brondello) coach our team to a win."
