NEW YORK — Aliyah Boston was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft on Monday night, going to the Indiana Fever.
It’s the first time that the Fever have had the top choice in the draft, and they chose the South Carolina star. Boston, a three-time AP All-American who also was the Player of the Year as a junior, will solidify the post for Indiana.
“It’s really special, I’m thankful to God for putting me in this position,” said the 21-year-old Boston, from the U.S. Virgin Islands. “Everyone in Indiana, they saw something in me, I’m ready to get there and get to work.”
The Fever had the worst record in the league last season, going 5-31.
“Aliyah Boston will have an immediate impact on our franchise on and off the court,” Fever GM Lin Dunn said. ‘We are excited to pair her with Kelsey (Mitchell) and NaLyssa (Smith) as we reload the Indiana Fever. We are very impressed with Aliyah’s post skills as well as her natural leadership skills. This a a great day for our franchise!”
Boston, like many other players, have had to choose whether to return to college for a fifth season because of the extra year granted for the COVID-19 virus or turn pro. She decided to enter the draft, joining 111 other players to declare.
Minnesota took Diamond Miller of Maryland with the No. 2 pick, and Dallas drafted Maddy Siegrist of Villanova with the third pick. Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, who was the WNBA’s first president, sat with Siegrist. The Wings also drafted UConn guard Lou Lopez Senechal two picks later. She had transferred to UConn after a stellar career at Fairfield.
Stephanie Soares of Iowa State went fourth to Washington. The Mystics quickly traded her to Dallas soon after selecting the 6-foot-7 center. Washington got back a future first- and second-round pick. Soares tore her ACL in January and will miss the upcoming WNBA season.
Stanford guard Haley Jones went sixth, and South Carolina’s Laeticia Amihere eighth to Atlanta. Indiana’s Grace Berger was drafted in between them by the Fever. Seattle took Tennessee’s Jordan Horston ninth and South Carolina guard Zia Cooke went 10th to the L.A. Sparks.
THE WNBA IS adding charter flights for the entire playoffs and back-to-back regular season games this year, the league announced Monday.
The league will pay for all of the flights.
“It’s significant dollars,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The Associated Press. “Now that we have best of three and five in the semifinals and finals. … You add it up it’s a lot of flights.”
The cost is expected to be around $4.5 million, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because details haven’t been publicly released.
Last year, the league chartered for the WNBA Finals as well as for the road team in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. Since taking over in 2019, Engelbert has slowly added a few more charter opportunities for teams. She allowed playoff teams that were traveling for more than one time zone to fly charter if they only had a day between games in the past.
“It’s something I’ve been working on since I came into the league,” she said. “It was never coming up with money for one year, but creating a sustainable model for the charter program to continue in perpetuity. Once you do it, you have to do it every year.”
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