The Indiana Fever selected former South Carolina guard Raven Johnson in the first round of the 2026 WNBA draft. Notably, Johnson has a bit of a history with Fever star Caitlin Clark.
The pair faced off in the 2023 Final Four round of the NCAA Tournament, and Clark famously refused to guard Johnson from the three-point line, opting just to wave her off and dare her to shoot.
Johnson has spoken publicly in the past about how much the moment impacted her.
“I was all over the internet,” Johnson said in an appearance the “I AM NEXT” podcast in March. “That’s one reason I hate the internet now, because of that situation. I got bashed, I got bullied, I got called all these things I wasn’t, aka like a monkey and things like that, and I just think I wanted to quit basketball at that time, and I just wanted to go in this little bubble of isolation and just be by myself.”
Now, another member of the Fever, Aaliyah Boston, is addressing the elephant in the room and whether it’ll impact the Fever’s chemistry this season.
“It’s so funny, the fans always have more beef than the players actually do,” Boston said on her Post Moves podcast, via Heavy.com. “So it’s always entertaining, you read all this stuff, and fans are hating on one person, hating on another. And then you’re playing with that said person.
“And so I think it’s going to be fine. Everyone has their thoughts, but when you come in, and you’re in the gym and you’re ready to hoop, that’s literally all it is.”
Considering Boston has spent two years as Clark’s teammate and has also played with Johnson in the past, dating back to her days at South Carolina, we’re going to assume she’s the most qualified person out there to speak on this.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.