The Indiana Fever played the cards they were dealt last season, even if it was an impossibly bad hand. Injuries took Caitlin Clark and other key contributors out of the lineup and sent them scrambling for hardship contracts and cast-offs. Aliyah Boston rose to the challenge, helping stabilize the team with a career-best campaign and powering a surprising run to the semifinals, where they gave the eventual champion Aces all they could handle.
While the WNBA and WNBPA continue to work on a new CBA, Boston is staying busy with Lilly, the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, and the Indiana Fever, supporting Lilly’s The Court Is Hers, a program dedicated to creating more opportunities for girls to play and thrive in basketball. As part of the event, she spent the day at a YMCA in Indy connecting with young players, volunteer coaches, and local community leaders. Boston spoke with FanSided about the experience, what made the Fever so special last season and what comes next for her and her teammates.
Can you start by telling about this campaign with Lilly and the YMCA, The Court is Hers — what you're doing and what the goal is?
Yeah, so The Court is Hers, it's such a great initiative. And nothing excites me more than being able to see young girls just across Indy in general, just be in love with basketball and get the opportunity to meet some of their favorite players, but also just see that there's so much more to it. And I think that that's what excited me the most, just thinking about when I was a little girl beginning basketball.
What was it like for you when you were a kid? Were sports accessible to you, basketball in particular, and how did that shape the early part of your journey?
Yeah, sports was accessible to me, but it was different. So growing up in the islands, I played in a co-ed league, but there were a total of three girls. So it was different, like, I wasn't seeing other girls around me playing basketball. And so for me, I feel like that's also another reason why I fell in love, because I enjoy that competitive part of going up against the boys and scoring on the boys, and then being like, 'oh my gosh, you let a girl score on you.' And so that's really how it was, and that's when I fell in love. But once I moved to the States, I mean, it was just completely different. There was basketball everywhere.
Can you talk a little bit about this work, and how you see it connecting to the larger mission of access at the pro level — WNBA expansion, Unrivaled, Project B, Athletes Unlimited, all these other leagues— making sure that there are opportunities for girls to start in youth sports, but also have something to grow towards?
You're able to see that there's so many more people continuing to invest in women's sports as a whole. And whether they stay in basketball, they pick another sport, it's just something to keep the girls being able to dream big and being able to see like, 'Hey, I can go to the WNBA, I can play overseas. I can go to college on a D1 scholarship.'
Because, growing up, that's what it was for me. I was like, okay, I want to go Division I. Growing up in the islands, they had a tournament that college teams would come down [for]. I'd go there every single Thanksgiving, I was watching the games the entire time. And so for us in this initiative, I mean, there's just so many girls that can drop out of sport, but with The Court is Hers. It not only helps you just on the basketball court, but it helps you build friendships from such a young age and be able to build that leadership skills that is important for women in general. It's honestly just such a great initiative.
It's been a wild year for Indiana sports. The Pacers, Tyrese Halliburton hitting all those game-winning buzzer-beaters in the playoffs. You and the Fever on a deep playoff run. Daniel Jones has the Colts cruising. IU football is a national championship contender. What's the vibe like in Indiana right now?
The energy is high! I think Indiana is just such a sports city, a sports state like no matter what, whether it's the Fever, the Pacers, the Colts, like the fans just continue to show up, and they cheer so loud. You see them. They're always walking. They're always repping either team. It doesn't matter who it is. They're repping it when they walk downtown. And I feel like there's no better feeling when you're living in a city and everyone is just so in love with sports.
What's the relationship like between Fever players and Pacers players? We've seen pictures, you all at Pacers games and Pacers players showing up for Fever games. What's the connection like?
Yeah, I mean, it's great. I think it's just mutual support on both ends. That's what we love the most. We love going to Pacers games, and we love when they come, and they watch us play. It just goes to show that there's so much respect on both sides for what we do and at the level that we do it.
You all had to navigate so many injuries last season, particularly in the backcourt — playmakers, shot creators. How did you evolve and adapt your game?
It definitely made me step out of my comfort zone a little bit, and just continue to be that type of playmaker for the squad. Honestly, I think it's great. It helped me grow my game tremendously, but it was definitely something I don't think we could have ever imagined going through as many injuries as we did, and still being able to make that playoff run.
But I think it goes to show the people that were brought into the locker room in the midst of all the chaos and the way that they just joined us and everything flowed so easily. I think it definitely helped grow my game in the sense that I was able to make better passes and find different ways to score. But it was definitely an adjustment.
I'm curious about the chemistry aspect. I always feel like joy is like an underrated tool in team sports. You have those teams who have so much talent, but maybe don't really get along, or there's not really fit or flow on the court, and the players don't really like playing together. And then there are teams maybe at a talent deficit some nights, but they show up for their teammates, everybody has a role, feels respected, trusted, and it seems like it can really make a difference.
Yeah, that's what it was for us, just being great friends, like there's no better connection than when you genuinely enjoy being around each other. And that's what it was for us. No matter what, no matter who came into the locker room, our thing was, listen, we are going to be friends, and we are going to be friends in the way that you're genuinely just happy. Because that helps, that grows your chemistry off the court, just helps your chemistry on the court. Because in the midst of hard moments, you trust every single person to step up, you trust every single person to take the shot. And you can't do that if there's not trust, if there's not that relationship. And we were able to build that with everyone.
Going back to your game evolving, one of the things that I noticed last year was your mid-range jumper. You hit 53.4 percent last year on long 2-pointers, which was awesome. Do you feel the pressure to expand your range all the way out to the 3-point line? How much do you feel like that has to be part of your game at some point?
Oh, 100 percent, it definitely has. When you're thinking about the evolution of just basketball in general, and the pace that we play, especially on the Fever, like being able to stretch the floor and shoot it consistently, is going to be important for me. With the guards that we have, the shooters and the spaces that we have on the floor, being able to have the floor completely spaced would be a complete game-changer. So that's definitely something that I'm focusing on.
Girls interested in joining the Winter YMCA Basketball League can learn more at indymca.org using the promo code HERCOURT at checkout, to ensure you’re not paying registration fees, which are covered only at YMCA of Greater Indianapolis locations.