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In 2022, the three finalists for the NCAA women’s basketball Naismith National Player of the Year Award were South Carolina Gamecocks center Aliyah Boston, Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark, and Stanford guard Haley Jones.
Ultimately, Aliyah Boston won the award. But that didn’t keep Caitlin Clark from showing up at the award ceremony, despite already knowing that Boston beat her out for the National Player of the Year Award.
Of course, one would imagine that Clark would do this without question if Boston beat her out for the WNBA MVP Award now, given that they’re both on the Indiana Fever. But this was more than two years before they’d become teammates.
Caitlin Clark’s Powerful Aliyah Boston Award Admission Resurfaces
On December 8, an interview that Clark did with Debbie Antonelli back in December 2022 has resurfaced because of Clark’s response when she was asked why she attended the 2022 National Player of the Year Award ceremony (which would be presented to Aliyah Boston) despite Clark knowing she didn’t win the award.
“I think the biggest thing is, you know, Aliyah was one of my teammates [on Team USA], and I think, like Coach Staley said, as that whole conversation was going on, this argument of, ‘Caitlin or Aliyah’ is so good for our game. That gets people excited. We want people to argue about who should be the National Player of the Year. That’s how it should be; we should have all these tremendous players in our game. And there should be that conversation. That’s what excites people to watch our game even more,” Clark said, per an X post from @caitscroptop.
“But at the same time, I want to respect and honor people that help our game be tremendous. And I think Aliyah is one of those. And obviously, coach Staley was Naismith Coach of the Year, as well, and I’ve had the honor of receiving the Dawn Staley Guard of the Year two times, so being able to honor her too, who has done so much for our game, was special. But at the end of the day, that’s not the reason why you play, to win awards,” she added.
since we’re reminiscing on aliyah and caitlin today, here’s caitlin in 2022 on why she attended the npoy ceremony: pic.twitter.com/Cx6z2BBGb0
— lo (@caitscroptop) December 8, 2025
“But it’s also a great honor for our team and our program, for me to even be a finalist. So celebrating that as well, because I know I wouldn’t have been there without my team or my coaches. At the same time, to celebrate Aliyah, and she deserved it… But like Coach Staley said, the conversation is great. There should be that argument for not only me and her, but other players as well. Because our game has so many great players,” Clark concluded.
This is a fantastic response from Clark, especially given that she was 20 years old at the time. And this humility was an important point of what has become a great relationship that Fever fans will hopefully get to watch on the court for many years to come.
