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Imago

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Imago

The Indiana Fever bolstered its ranks at this year’s draft, but a columnist felt they may have played their cards all wrong. Players like Justine Pissott and Jessica Timmons have been added to further strengthen the ranks, but there has been one more addition that is garnering reaction from the masses. It is none other than South Carolina’s Raven Johnson, whose history with Caitlin is well documented. And that is exactly where a veteran columnist like Jason Whitlock is taking offense.

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“They are on a mission to destroy Caitlin Clark. What the hell are the Indiana Fever doing? The Indiana Fever have the best point guard in the history of women’s basketball. And you know what the Indiana Fever did last night with the 10th pick in the draft. We should take a point guard, someone who plays Caitlin Clark’s position. Raven Johnson played at South Carolina. If you remember, they’re playing Iowa in the NCAA tournament. Caitlin Clark backed all the way off from Raven Johnson because she can’t shoot.”

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“She’s been haunted by this and halfway blames Caitlin Clark. She’s pretending that going unguarded is why people called her a m****y online. So they go into this draft needing frontcourt depth, and they draft a point guard who played for Dawn Staley. They are bringing another delusional woman into the Indiana Fever locker-room,” said the Indiana-born columnist Whitlock in his vintage blunt manner.

Anyone who knows Whitlock knows that the man has absolutely no filter when it comes to speaking his mind. No stranger to making controversial statements, Whitlock made headlines last year when he said the WNBA was reliant on men and the success of the NBA. This time around, he has taken an issue with Raven being pushed towards Caitlin with an ulterior agenda.

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Whitlock feels that the Fever is hell-bent on creating internal conflict rather than addressing roster needs in the frontcourt. According to him, the Fever picking Raven when they already have a player like Caitlin who can shoot with ease is a miscalculation. Maybe adding a forward to support Aliyah Boston (15.0 ppg) would have done the trick, who knows?

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Natasha Howard was close, but even then, there was a huge difference between her and Boston’s stats so that would have helped he feels. Irrespective of what Whitlock feels, the team has already made its choice, and now these two former rivals, turned teammates, will share the court.

As a teammate to both players at different times, Aliyah Boston offered a unique perspective on how the former rivals might coexist in Indiana.

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Aliyah Boston Feels Johnson’s First Practice Session With Clark Would Be Awkward

Aliyah Boston is a player who knows both Raven Johnson and Caitlin Clark quite well. She was a teammate of Johnson during her days with South Carolina, and now is a teammate of Clark at Indiana.

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And Boston puts it as honestly as possible because she was also once in Raven’s shoes when she joined Indiana and teamed up with CC.

“Well, I can’t wait to hear about that first practice. It’s going to be a little awkward—I mean, I know that Caitlin Clark and Raven have probably talked since then. But there’s got to be a little, you know what I mean? Especially a defensive player like [Johnson], you’re gonna come in, you’re probably gonna be playing against the first unit… And so you’re gonna be battling against [Clark] in practice,” said Boston on her Post Moves podcast about the early jitters that might come with the job at hand.

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Aliyah Boston can relate to the situation. In the 2023 NCAA Final Four, Caitlin Clark scored 41 points to lead Iowa to a 77–73 win over South Carolina. A year later, Clark joined the Indiana Fever, where Boston was already on the roster, turning former college rivals into teammates.

While Boston is confident professionalism will prevail, the on-court dynamics between the fiery Clark and the defensive-minded Johnson will be a key storyline as the Fever chase a title.

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Sourav Ganguly

367 Articles

Sourav Ganguly covers the WNBA and NCAA basketball for EssentiallySports. With a master’s in media studies and reporting experience across basketball, soccer, tennis, and Olympic sports, he brings a cross-sport lens to the ES Basketball Desk. His work often follows rising talent like Dominique Malonga and Ashlyn Watkins, and the moments that push the women’s game forward.

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Snigdhaa Jaiswal

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