{"id":413155,"date":"2026-01-16T12:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/413155\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:58:08","slug":"fevers-aliyah-boston-reflects-on-why-2025-was-her-favorite-wnba-season-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/413155\/","title":{"rendered":"Fever\u2019s Aliyah Boston Reflects on Why 2025 Was Her Favorite WNBA Season Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

For fans of the Fever, the 2025 season was bittersweet\u2014the team won the Commissioner’s Cup<\/a> and made it to playoff semifinals, but the roster was also riddled with injuries to players like Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, Aari McDonald and Caitlin Clark. Even more gut-wrenching, Indiana\u2019s postseason series with the eventual champion Aces was close, too; despite the depleted squad, Indiana forced a Game 5 and held on to the bitter end.<\/p>\n

Still, for star forward Aliyah Boston\u2014a key reason for Indiana\u2019s success in both the regular and postseason\u2014this most recent campaign was her favorite yet.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Sports Illustrated on behalf of The Court Is Hers<\/a>, a Fever and Lilly-founded initiative aimed at increasing girls’ participation in local Indiana basketball,<\/a> Boston explained exactly why her third season in the WNBA stood out from the rest. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know when you look at it from a whole, it\u2019s like, how could this have been so special, especially with all the injuries that we have?\u201d Boston said. \u201cBut I think [it was] just the people that we had in the locker room. And it started with the entire coaching staff, they made it so exciting to come in and work, even when we came off losses. … We continued to find different areas of where we wanted to grow, which I think excited me the most.”<\/p>\n

Boston said she felt that energy and excitement endure through the postseason, even if the Fever would ultimately exit the playoffs earlier than they hoped.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking it to Game 5 of the semis obviously didn\u2019t end the way we wanted to,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I think it showed us as individuals, you know, how we can continue to impact the game, regardless of who\u2019s on the floor. [Those were] growing moments for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

That resilience was also the perfect demonstration of what Boston believes to be the team\u2019s secret weapon: fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the way that we’re able to communicate [and] the friendships and the relationships that we have with each other,\u201d she mused, asked about the most underrated piece of the Fever\u2019s success. \u201cIt was just so natural, and it was [like that] off the court, as well. Anything off the court is only going to help that bond on the court, which I think we were able to accomplish and show.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the offseason now, which means many a WNBA player\u2014including Boston\u2014is spending her time in Unrivaled, the upstart 3v3 league co-founded by superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. Still, the forward already knows what she\u2019d like to work on next for her WNBA campaign, whenever that may be.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJust continuing to expand my game,\u201d Boston said of what she\u2019d like to improve going forward. \u201cI think just being a lot more consistent with it, and not allowing it to be here and there, depending on possession.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, though, she\u2019ll keep doing her thing with Unrivaled (she\u2019s the Phantom’s second-leading scorer and leads the team in rebounds, steals and blocks), while continuing to inspire young, athletic girls with both her platform and her work with The Court is Hers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never take it for granted,\u201d she said of influencing the next generation. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity that I would never trade. … Sometimes, I\u2019m still in awe that I\u2019m really at this level, but it’s honestly such a great feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

More WNBA on Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For fans of the Fever, the 2025 season was bittersweet\u2014the team won the Commissioner’s Cup and made it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-413155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}