INDIANAPOLIS — It’s the third quarter of a late May game against the Valkyries and the Fever are looking to cap off a third-quarter rally that saw them overturn a seven-point deficit to take the lead.
With 20 seconds remaining, a miscommunication by the Golden State defense allows Kelsey Mitchell to find Raven Johnson in the corner for a three that ignites the home crowd.
In a moment that could hardly better define the highs and lows associated with playing rookies, Johnson’s excitement after the shot quickly transforms into overzealousness. Without a single player on either team having yet crossed half court, she fouls Veronica Burton 94 feet from the basket to send her to the free throw line.
As cliché of a rookie mistake as it was, it was also a perfect teaching moment, and Aliyah Boston took advantage.
Standing at half court, she waits for Johnson, puts her arms on her shoulders and offers advice. Despite being just 24 years old and in her fourth year in the league, Boston has become one of the team’s leaders.
Boston isn’t new to the role. By her own admission, she’s a natural talker. But talking is not leading, nor is it necessarily communicating, either. Those are skills she’s had to develop over the years, something she credits her college coach, Dawn Staley, for helping kickstart.
It’s also something that came along by necessity. When injuries ravaged the Fever last season, Boston became the point guard of sorts at times. Point guards are vocal leaders, so Boston had to assume that role as well.
All those experiences and circumstances have led to this season, where Boston has blossomed into a leader and a constant voice for the Fever, whether in practice, the locker room, a huddle or during the game.
In this moment against the Valkyries, it’s allowed her to help refocus Johnson in a tight game. The results are immediate as Johnson opens the fourth quarter with a flurry of activity, scoring or assisting on the first seven points of the period for Indiana — including setting up Boston for a layup — as the lead extended to double digits en route to a victory.
Leadership is often demonstrated in the moments behind the scenes and away from the cameras, but that game and that moment offered a rare chance for fans to see how impactful it can be.
It’s been clear for multiple years that the Fever have three stars in Caitlin Clark, Boston and Mitchell.
But sometimes even if something is implied, it’s still best to make it known. So, this preseason, head coach Stephanie White took aside the trio and told them the obvious.
“I think we’ve kind of known that from the jump that it’s really just like, we got to — the three of us like as a unit — we have to make sure that we lead the team in the right direction,” Boston told SBNation of White’s preseason message. “I think it’s always different, especially last year with [Clark] being out, so it was like kind of just finding that group again. But I think, honestly, like we’re doing a pretty good job of it.”
Setting aside the multiple All-Star selections in the last two seasons from the three, they are also among the most tenured players on the roster. The roster turnover since the arrival of Boston and Clark in consecutive drafts leaves them as three of the four longest-serving Fever.
For Boston, even if talking comes naturally, White’s message was a reassurance that the team needed her to speak up. She took that vote of confidence and ran with it this season, and her team has taken notice.
“I think the thing that really stands out is Aliyah’s constantly the one talking in our huddles,” Clark said. “She’s the first voice we have there…She has a very strong voice and you constantly hear it whether it’s in-game, whether it’s on the bench in a timeout, whether that’s in the locker room on not just game days, but even on practice days too.”
Being the vocal leader also hasn’t taken away from Boston’s production either. If anything, the opposite has been true.
She’s averaging 17.2 points, the most of her career, while still grabbing 8.6 rebounds per contest. Much of her jump in scoring can be attributed to her improvement as both a 3-point shooter, where she’s shooting 44.7% on 2.5 attempts per game, and at the free throw line, where she’s shooting 83.8%.
“I think talking about the game is always great and I think it allows you to just see and understand it a lot more, understand teams, player tendencies,” Boston said. “I think the more that you watch, the more you talk about it, it just makes it clearer.”
As great as Boston has been this season, ask just about anyone with the Fever, and they’ll point to last season as the moment Boston took a leap in many ways.
It was a year marred by injuries for the Fever. As quickly as the team would make an in-season signing, another player would fall by the wayside with the point guard position being the most common point of attrition.
To help alleviate the burden of the rotating new faces, the Fever did what they do so often: lean on Boston.
“At times she was our point guard last year,” Clark said. “And if you’re the point guard, you got to communicate a lot, you got to know what’s going on, you got to be on the same page as a coach and you have to be able to get your teammates where they need to be.”
Boston became one of only three players in league history to have at least 350 rebounds and 150 assists in a season last year. She also realized how impactful she can still be as a communicator even if she wasn’t a point guard.
“I think that just my positioning, how we wanted to play, I think that definitely was a super big part of it,” Boston told SBNation. “So for this year, I’m just trying to make sure that I continue on that path.
”I think you can still lead from the post. I know the guards have the ball a lot, but I think being able to just communicate and talk about what I’m seeing is always going to be crucial.”
On top of everything else, the interplay between Boston and Clark remains one of the most reliable actions for any team in the league. What continues to make Boston particularly difficult to defend is her passing ability. As quickly as Clark can find Boston on a roll to the rim, the latter can hit the former on a backcut.
Boston is one of only two players in the league this season with a total rebound percentage and an assist percentage both above 20%. The Fever are putting the ball in her hands more than ever before, evidenced by her career-high 27.8% usage percentage, and she’s repaying them with career numbers.
“She’s solid,” White said. “She doesn’t get too high, she doesn’t get too low. Certainly, every player gets frustrated at times, but she’s an elite communicator. You trust her to make the right play and to make the right read. She brings people together. She’s a connector, which is so important, and she just continues to lead by example and be a vocal leader for our team.”
Those lessons learned from a challenging 2025 season are paying dividends for Boston in 2026. As a team, the Fever have struggled to find consistency this season. Offensively, Indiana is averaging the most points per game in the league. Defensively, they’re allowing the third most.
Not surprisingly, highs and lows have followed them. A recent four-game win streak included a game-winner from Clark in Washington. But that streak came shortly after an ugly loss in Portland, when they trailed by as many as 26.
What remains most consistent throughout it all, though, is Aliyah Boston, who just keeps improving.
