South Carolina star Aliyah Boston is the projected No. 1 pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft.John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
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You can’t have a discussion about sports technology today without including athletes in that conversation. Their partnerships, investments and endorsements help fuel the space – they have emerged as major stakeholders in the sports tech ecosystem. The Athlete's Voice series highlights the athletes leading the way and the projects and products they’re putting their influence behind.
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Aliyah Boston is, without question, the most decorated player in women’s college basketball. In 2022, the South Carolina forward became the first male or female athlete to win the Naismith Trophy as overall player of the year as well as Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. She was named the Honda Cup Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, joining a list of recent winners that includes Katie Ledecky, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Maya Moore and Candace Parker — as well as her coach, Dawn Staley, who did in 1991.
Boston, who is 6’5”, has rewritten South Carolina’s record book for just about every permutation of stats related to rebounds, blocks and double-doubles. She averaged 17 points and 17 rebounds in last year’s Final Four, as she led the Gamecocks to the program’s second NCAA national championship. She is the expected No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft.
A native of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and a graduate of prep school Worcester (Mass.) Academy, Boston has struck a number of NIL deals with Under Armour, Bose, Bojangles, Crocs, Octagon Basketball, Orangetheory Fitness and, most recently, Six Star Pro Nutrition. When NIL deals became legal on July 1, 2021, Six Star Pro Nutrition announced three at midnight with women’s basketball twins Haley and Hanna Cavinder as well as then-Illinois player Edgar Padilla Jr. South Carolina women’s basketball players are also all estimated to be earning about $25,000 per year through the Garnet Trust and NOCAP Sports.
On choosing to align with Six Star Pro Nutrition . . .
First of all, their want to partner with me was just something truly special because I know how big their brand is. But I also love their protein powder and their 4th Quarter Energy supplements. I really think that they do really well when it comes to training and recovery. They're just a great partner, and I'm just super excited about it.
On when she began to emphasize nutrition and recovery . . .
It’s definitely been a major focus since I got to college because the pace of the game is just so much faster than it was in high school or anything that I've ever done. And so definitely in college I really started to focus on that, especially sophomore year going into junior year was definitely my key time to lock in and focus on that.
On college level training . . .
It’s definitely intense, but I feel like, as the time has passed, I’ve been able to adapt really quickly and I think I've done that pretty well. It was different because in high school I didn't really have that focus — the strength coaches or the nutrition pieces that I needed. Now when I got to college, that was a major difference, definitely beneficial.
On sport science devices . . .
Definitely [we use] technology to track a lot of it. We have the Kinexons that we use [for load monitoring]. We have a jumping machine [force plate] that tells how fast or how hard we land and jump and how quick we get up and down.
On tracking sleep . . .
We actually used to do an Oura ring where it would tell us our sleep, but then I got a little nervous before I go to sleep at 1:00 AM and then my strength coach sees that and she's like, ‘Why are you not in bed?’
On having Dawn Staley as a coach . . .
She understands the game very well, and so her IQ of the game has just helped us because she just directs us. She tells us really how things should go, and then when we really like look at it, she's right. It makes it a lot easier because she never second guesses, she never questions. She's always like, you know what? Like, ‘This happens, [then] this.’ She has a solution for every scenario that could possibly happen, which I just think is really cool.
On what she looks for in a brand when making NIL deals . . .
I look at them trying to help grow the game, which I think is definitely a priority. And I think Six Star is doing that well, especially, like they're offering the trip to go to the national championship game, whether it's the girls’ or the men's game, which I think is something truly special because there are probably so many fans out there that might not ever get to get the chance. They can apply on the website, try to get in and they have a great chance to win.
On why growing the game is such a passion for her . . .
There's a lot of attention on the women's game specifically right now. I think we have a lot of talent, and I do think there are a lot of younger people looking up to us. If they could come to a game, they would love it, they would probably talk about it a lot more. But also [I want] to help grow the game in the future. When our time is done in college and we get to the league, we want people to continue to watch us — the same fan bases that we played for years and years or even a fan base that we competed against — and to say, ‘They're no longer in college, let's see how they do in the league.’
On her message to young girls who might be interested in basketball . . .
I would tell them to set high goals for themselves. Don't think anything is untouchable because that's what I did — a little girl from the islands trusted God, set high goals to go to college, play in the league. And so I’d definitely tell them to also do the same thing, no matter what, whether it's not basketball, but something else. Make sure they set their goals themselves and surround themselves with people that support them all.
On her rebounding . . .
All the coaches I have in South Carolina have definitely helped, but I just track the ball and then I'm just like, ‘I need to go get it.’ Rebounding is a big part of South Carolina basketball, and Coach Staley emphasizes us rebounding defensively and offensively. And so it's really just the will, the want, to go get the rebound to give yourself your team another possession or to help them push the ball in transition.
On taking pride in playing the post . . .
Everybody wants to now shoot the ball, dribble. Everybody’s a big guard. But playing the position that I play, having my back to the basket, I truly enjoy it because I feel like not a lot of people right now like the contact, like to bang, but I do. And so I think it goes to my advantage. But I also want to be growing my game as an individual, so definitely being able to knock down that jumper, take people off the dribble is definitely a priority, but I also think it's important to be able to go and bang down there and score through contact or even get a stop defensively.
On how she views brand-building. . .
Social media is definitely a crucial part of it all because that is where you get your fan base, your followers, and partner companies. They look at that, your social media engagement, how you get along with fans.
At first I wasn't a big social media girl. I had to be convinced time after time after time by my parents to post a simple post on Instagram. Before NIL started, my mom was like, ‘Aaliyah, you need to lie build a following.’ And I was like, ‘OK, sure. I'll try. I'll post the beach picture, let me post this.’
But now I really enjoy it. I enjoy posting, I'll TikTok, I'll post on Instagram, Twitter. So I definitely think it is an important role, though, because this is how you build your brand, who you are. So companies can see this and be like, ‘Oh, I like this, I like that.’
