Aliyah Boston is working on her confidence ahead of Year 3 with the Indiana Fever — and some of that confidence will come from playing in Unrivaled, the new 3×3 full-court league in Miami.
Boston, the 2023 No. 1 pick and WNBA Rookie of the Year, is coming off another effective year with the Fever. She was an All-Star for the second straight season and a key part of Indiana’s offensive game, leading the team with 8.9 rebounds per game and finishing third with 14 points per game.
Still, she said, there are always things she can work on.
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Boston had a bit of a slow start to the 2024 season, even after working out heavily to put on muscle and weight on her first WNBA offseason. Her increased muscle helped her hold her own against bigger posts in the league, but the lack of organized basketball in the offseason meant she had another learning curve at the beginning of the season.
Hopefully, Unrivaled will help fill that gap.
“Allowing me to work in space, and allowing me to just be confident in the stuff I’ve worked on this offseason, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Boston said. “Knowing that I put in the work, and knowing that I put in time, and knowing those things will execute.”
Unrivaled is a new 3×3 league starting this WNBA offseason founded by women’s basketball stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. It’s a 10-week season based in Miami, and it was formed both to allow top women’s players to make money in the offseason without going overseas and fit within the WNBA’s prioritization rules. The league will end on March 10, well before players need to report to their respective teams for training camp.
Boston will lace up for Vinyl Basketball Club, which includes Dearica Hamby, Jordin Canada, Rhyne Howard, Rae Burrell and Arike Ogunbowale.
This kind of game has an increased emphasis on defense, especially with the full-court aspect and only three players on the floor for each team at a time. It will be good work for Boston, who can bring that increased defensive effort to the Fever (one of the worst defensive teams in the league) in 2025.
“I think there’s just a lot of space on the floor, so as individuals, it’s making sure we’re guarding our own, because it’s going to be hard,” Boston said. “You can’t really pack the paint, because everyone has the capability of shooting the 3 and shooting it well, so it’s just making sure you’re able to guard your own. We want to play fast, and I feel like that’s how we play in the league anyways. It’s a pretty fast-paced game, so we’re just going to keep doing that.”
Boston has already gotten a head start on working with the Fever’s new staff, which include former Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White and player development coach Keith Porter. Porter even went to Massachusetts, where Boston was training, in December to work with her before she reported to Unrivaled.
Along with solidifying parts of her game she already has, she and Porter worked on new aspects to bring into her third year in the league in a couple months.
“Just continuing to be quick but also poised in the mid-post, especially just being confident taking my shots,” Boston said about her workout session with Porter. “I think it was super dope that Keith came out to Mass to work out with me, and we just continue to work on that and obviously expanding my game, just being able to attack from different angles.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Unrivaled 3×3 will sharpen Aliyah Boston’s skills for Indiana Fever
