Aliyah Boston, likely No. 1 pick in WNBA draft, could be game-changer for Indiana Fever

INDIANAPOLIS — Lin Dunn pulled out every lucky charm she could find in her stash the night of the WNBA draft lottery in November and she lined them up. Dunn pulled out a worn-down rabbit's foot and other relics that went back two decades when she coached and managed the Seattle Storm, when the team had the No. 1 picks in 2000 and 2001, when they got Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson.

Dunn wanted desperately to be in that position again. With the No. 1 pick, with the chance of landing a franchise-changing player. And this time, she wanted it for the Indiana Fever.

"I pulled out all my lucky charms," Dunn, the Fever's general manager, told IndyStar last week. "And I did a little hooby, dooby, dooby. And it all worked out."

The Fever got the No. 1 pick that night in November, the first time in franchise history. "It was our turn," Dunn said.

But could the team get a 6-5 beast, a forward at South Carolina and the 2022 Naismith National Player of the Year. Could the Fever get Aliyah Boston?

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Women's basketball pundits were dubbing Boston the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft. But Boston still had another year of college eligibility, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After losing in the Final Four to Iowa's Caitlin Clark on March 31, Boston had a choice.

She could return for a fifth season or declare for the WNBA draft. Dunn and the world of women's basketball waited.

“She's ready to make the next step to the league," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said after the team's Final Four loss.

Hours after Staley said those words, Dunn was reading through social media posts and saw the tweet — Boston's tweet.

"In this moment, I am truly breathless as I make the next best decision of my life," Boston tweeted April 1. "I have decided to pursue my dream by declaring for the 2023 WNBA Draft."

For Dunn, that tweet was wonderful and kind of ironic, coming on a day for fooling. This was no joke for Dunn. This was serious and potentially franchise changing for the Fever.

"We're looking to get better," Dunn told IndyStar, not revealing whether Boston would be the team's No. 1 pick. "We’re looking to get better today, tomorrow and in the future."

If anyone can do that for the Fever, there is no doubt in Sherry Levin's mind, it is Boston.

A high school phenom: 'She is never content with the right now'

I think I can make Aliyah the best player in women's basketball.

Those words came out of Levin's mouth before she ever stepped on a court to coach Boston. But Levin never regretted those words she spoke to Boston's mother after her freshman season of high school at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. She had watched the tapes of Boston on the court.

Levin was doing her homework as she began her second stint as girls basketball coach at Worcester, inheriting a team she knew nothing about. But when Levin got the roster of returning players, Worcester's athletic director Ed Reilly pointed to one name and said, "This is a mom you probably want to connect with."

Cleone Boston wasn't too happy with the way her daughter's freshman basketball season had played out. She was considering moving Boston to another school.

As Levin watched game tapes from the previous season, she understood Cleone's frustrations and reached out. The two talked for 90 minutes.

"I watched every single game," Levin told Cleone before Boston's sophomore season at Worcester. "Aliyah was not used the way she should have been." She had been used to pass the ball to seniors to shoot 3-pointers.

Boston had so much more potential, unimaginable potential, and so Levin said those words to Cleone: "I think I can make Aliyah the best player in women's basketball."

"Thank God they said, 'We're staying,'" Levin told IndyStar. "They said, 'We're going to leave her in your hands.'"

Levin began a journey she calls a "beautiful story" and her "claim to fame," getting to coach Boston for three years in high school, giving her a foundation.

"I can tell you she is never content with the right now, so I didn't coach her that way," Levin said. Boston would score 22 points and get 10 rebounds in a game, but Levin knew Boston didn't want to hear "great job Aliyah." She wanted to hear, "you had three blocks with the wrong hand."

Boston ate up everything Levin told her.

"She was one of the most coachable in terms of her work ethic," Levin said. "Always ready and wanting to learn more, to get better."

It was a work ethic Boston learned as a young girl growing up more than 1,700 miles from Worcester Academy in the U.S. Virgin Islands, playing basketball every chance she got, honing her game — and dreaming of one day playing in the WNBA.

'She's a double, double machine'

Boston grew up in St. Thomas on an island 40 miles east of Puerto Rico. She fell in love with basketball after watching her older sister, Alexis, play. But there weren't many basketball leagues for girls in St. Thomas so Boston played with the boys and she dominated.

By middle school, Boston was hooked on the game, she says in an ESPN video of her basketball journey. Boston declined an interview with IndyStar for this story as she prepared for her final weeks of college and Monday night's draft.

In the ESPN video, Boston went back to the outdoor basketball court where she spent endless hours in St. Thomas. “After school, my mom would bring us out here. 'Let’s shoot,'" Boston said. "It was brutal." The hot sun pounding down relentlessly, but Boston kept playing anyway.

“I saw some signs in her in seventh grade,“ Russell Brewley, who was Boston's basketball coach in middle school, told ESPN. "She was honestly better than all the girls." And plenty of the boys.

As Boston's high school basketball career loomed, her mom Cleone said her daughter "needed an opportunity to see who she could become."

After playing basketball in summer camps in the United States, Boston and Alexis moved in 2014 to Massachusetts to live with their aunt. It was the best move the family ever made.

As a high school player at Worcester, Boston dominated, becoming a three-time Gatorade Player of the Year and rising to the No. 3 recruit in the country.

Boston could finish a shot on the left and on the right. She was strong and big. She was a quiet, dominating force on the court who led her team to a 24-1 record and a second straight New England Prep School Athletic Council Class A championship her senior season in 2019. That year, she was also a consensus All-American, averaging 17.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game.

"She's, as we like to say in the business, a double-double machine," said Reilly, Worcester's athletic director. "The biggest mistake I ever made was not appointing myself to be Aliyah Boston's coach."

Reilly remembers the day Boston walked onto the Worcester campus and her beautiful smile. She had an endearing way about her, kind and humble, but she also had incredible leadership skills, he said.

"You hear this often echoed, I think it rings true, particularly with Aliyah," Reilly said. "She is a better person than she is a basketball player and she is an off-the-chart player who has gotten national and international attention."

'The Fever will never regret taking Aliyah Boston'

The college coaches came calling for Boston at Worcester, one after another after another. Major college programs wanted this towering player who could handle the ball like a point guard. Boston was recruited by UConn, Ohio State, Notre Dame and countless other schools. She chose South Carolina.

Staley, who declined an interview with IndyStar, got an immediate taste of this phenom she had recruited.

In Boston's first game at South Carolina in November 2019, she posted the first triple-double by a freshman in program history and the first by any NCAA Division I player in her career debut. She also tied the school record with 10 blocks.

Boston went on to become South Carolina's superstar, winning just about every school, league and college women's basketball accolade there was to win. She also led her team to its second NCAA title in 2022.

As Boston's senior season played out, Dunn said she was careful not to distract her. But last week, as Dunn had Zoom interviews with top prospects in the WNBA draft, she talked to Boston.

Even before that call, Dunn said she already felt like she knew Boston from talking to her agent and college coaches and following her on social media.

"I read her posts. I feel like I learn a lot about how she says things, things she values, her closeness to her family," Dunn said. "That's been really helpful. It gives me a little bit of insight to the type of person she is. And she is a very good person."

But, of course, Dunn is in the business of basketball and Boston's on-court presence and skills are phenomenal.

"She’s an exceptional player," Dunn said. "She is special."

The likes of a player like Boston don't come along often in women's basketball, Levin said. "Aliyah is an example of God-given talents and gifts. Not everybody is 6-5, not everybody can run and jump the way she can. She uses her brain and her heart."

And Levin will never forget the dream Boston had in her heart as she rose to greatness at Worcester Academy.

"To play in the WNBA, that was her dream then," Levin said. "I literally would say, 'You are going to be in the WNBA. You are the going to be the best player in the WNBA."

And if the Fever make what Levin believes is the only pick the team could possibly make, Boston will electrify the franchise.

"Whatever is not working for the Fever, Aliyah will figure that out," Levin said. "I can tell you the Fever will never regret taking Aliyah Boston."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Aliyah Boston, Indiana Fever's likely No. 1 draft pick is game-changer