2023 WNBA Draft: Aalyiah Boston No. 1 to Indiana, Liberty draft Okako Adika
We kick off our WNBA coverage the same night 36 young women kick off their hoop dreams
Festive flowers were laid knowingly in front of Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and LaChina Robinson last night in Manhattan as they analyzed WNBA teams’ 2023 draft picks. The floral display served as a symbolic recognition of the talent and deservedness of this year’s WNBA draft class.
Perhaps no one is more deserving of her flowers than the No. 1 overall pick, Aaliyah Boston from South Carolina. I’ll try and consolidate her accolades here: national champion, unanimous three-time First Team All-America, Honda Cup Collegiate Athlete of the Year, and she’s South Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder (total and offensive), triple-doubles, double-doubles, games started, and now she can add No. 1 WNBA draft pick. In Boston’s final campaign in Columbia, she averaged a near double-double with 12.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.
Boston, 6-foot-5, brings a defensive prowess that a team who finished 5-31 desperately needs. She joins former Gamecock teammate Destanni Henderson, the point guard whose transition to the professional level last season saw her average 5.3 points and 2.5 assists per game. Boston embraced Henderson after getting picked and sang “Reunited.” Boston noted in her press conference that the transition from college to pros won’t be easy, but is a jump she had to face before, going from high school to college and entering a system where teammates already had experience playing together.
On what she wants to bring outside of her game, she noted, “Being confident and being confident in your leadership skills, use your voice, say what I see on the court.” This excellent leadership quality has helped her head a team that lost only eight times in her college career, and her basketball I.Q will match up well with the Fever’s established leaders in Kelsey Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith. Boston brought two different watch parties who couldn’t make the trip to Spring Studios in SoHo: her family in Saint Thomas, and the Fever fans who got out their seats when they secured the national player of the year.
The Fever also gained a hometown hero in Grace Berger from Indiana University, the All-Big Ten First Team guard whose goal is “making a roster and contributing.” The Fever landed Berger with the No. 7 pick, and might have secured more fans in attendance between her and Boston. The Fever averaged just under 2,000 fans per game, while Berger’s Hoosiers brought in over 7,000 and Boston’s Gamecocks sold out numerous times.
The Minnesota Lynx secured the No. 2 and No. 12 picks in Diamond Miller and Maia Hirsch, respectively, and second-round studs in Dorka Juhasz, the 6-foot-5 forward from the University of Connecticut and South Carolina guard Brea Beal. Miller was seen as pro-ready during her time at Maryland, proclaiming “My expectation is to be Diamond Miller every time I step on the court” and to love the game and be passionate like she was when she was a kid watching Maya Moore be drafted No. 1 in 2011. Miller knows that she has big shoes to fill: Moore went on to win four WNBA championships and was a 6-time All-Star. Miller averaged 19.7 PPG, and the left-hander has tremendous control over the ball. She joins Napheesa Collier, the No. 6 overall pick in 2019 who averaged 16 points and nine rebounds per game, the latter third in the league in 2020. The Lynx went 14-22 last year, and have not won a championship since 2017.
With three picks in the first round, the Dallas Wings snuck out of this draft with steals. Their No. 3 pick went to Maddy Siegrist, the Villanova star who led the nation in scoring with a staggering 29 points per game. Siegrist finished her collegiate career as the Big East’s all-time leading scorer, men’s or women’s. She joins a team of tremendous talent at the guard position in Arike Ogunbowale, Veronica Burton, and Diamond DeShields, to name a few. Notable bigs are Charlie Collier, Natasha Howard and Satou Sabally.
As for the other new draftees, Brazil native Stephanie Soares was picked fourth by the Mystics before being traded to the Wings for future first- and second-round picks. Soares recorded eight double-doubles in 13 games for Iowa State this season before suffering a season-ending ACL injury. At 6-foot-6, she will help both the defense and offense with her length and is a very competitive team player who any franchise would want.
After this early trade, the Wings also secured UConn guard Lou Lopen Senechal, a mature player with a quick release who brings a European style of play. After four seasons at Fairfield, where she led the Stags to the 2022 MAAC Championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance, she improved her game in Storrs, averaging 15.5 points for the Huskies. At 24, she is one of the oldest players to be drafted this year, and her career has been full of ups and downs: “Really didn’t think I would be here one day . . . I’ve come a long way,” she said at her presser, representing the underlying feeling of the entire draft day.
As for the New York Liberty, the team that made blockbuster move after blockbuster move this offseason finally got to make a move at the draft with the 30th pick, selecting University of Southern California's guard/forward Okako Adika. Adika made a name for herself this season with the Trojans, helping them reach their first NCAA Tournament in nine years. She averaged 7.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and a steal per game, with timely threes that propelled USC to wins over then-No. 2 Stanford and a double-double of 18 and 11 in a win over Oregon. Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said, “Okako Adika is a promising talent who we’re really excited about. As a versatile 3-and-D wing with familiarity in a pro-style offense, she’s someone who we can really use down the line.” Down the line, because the Liberty added 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones, 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart, and future Hall-of-Famer Courtney Vandersloot to their core this offseason, in addition to incumbent All-Stars Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney.
As the weather warms and trees boast buds, the start of a new season is evident in nature. Surefire first-rounders head to the top of the Empire State Building, to light it up orange and to mark the start of a new era of their lives. Many of them just concluded their collegiate careers the past couple of weeks, and as Miller pointed out, “I still feel like a college student, I’m still in college classes.” Although they may still have academic obligations, these draftees have all decided to take their game to the next level, where only 144 total roster spots are available to the entire league, and playing time is not guaranteed. Each and every one of them have come a long way, and each deserves their flowers.
