Aliyah Boston and the Indiana Fever struggled in the early parts of the season, and at one point, the noise surrounding the team was deafening.
It was hard to miss Indiana’s early woes — tons of turnovers, missed shots and little chemistry. The chatter surrounding the team became so bad and toxic that head coach Christie Sides blasted critics for not giving her players enough grace. But it kept going. And a lot of it was directed at Boston, who, admittedly, looked a long way from the basketball that earned her 2023 Rookie of the Year honors.
Eventually, despite receiving support from teammates like Caitlin Clark, Boston had to delete social media to tune out the chatter. She recently revealed when she knew it had to go. Here’s what she shared with Megan Armstrong of UPROXX:
“For me, it was really just the constant noise…I feel like every time I opened it up, there was something about me or something about our team. I don’t internalize a lot of stuff, but when you continue to see stuff over and over again, I mean, it makes it hard not to second-guess yourself…”
“I needed to take that step back so I can make sure that I know what I’m doing. I know that I’m confident in myself, my game…I knew that what I was doing was enough.”
And to the people who hurl hate or unwarranted judgment at athletes, Boston says they are forgetting one thing:
“People forget that we’re human, and the moment that you put the human perspective into it, it should change what you say.”
“At the end of the day, if this was your daughter, your niece, your cousin getting hate spewed toward them, you would want to make it stop.”
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