A’ja Wilson drafts fellow South Carolina players to WNBA All-Star team

COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball fans will have no trouble taking sides in the 2023 WNBA All-Star game after Gamecocks legend A’ja Wilson drafted both Aliyah Boston and Allisha Gray to her team as a captain.

Wilson, the star of the Las Vegas Aces, is averaging 19.7 points and 9.2 rebounds in 2023. She was named an AllStar captain alongside New York Liberty standout Breanna Stewart for the second consecutive season. Team Wilson beat Team Stewart 134-112 in the 2022 All-Star game.

Wilson was the only South Carolina alumna named an All-Star in 2022, though she did draft two fellow Aces teammates to her roster last season. This year, Wilson kept her friends close again, selecting both fellow Gamecocks and all three other Aces players.

Boston was selected No. 1 overall in the 2023 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever and has already helped the organization match last year’s win total halfway through this season. She was the second South Carolina player drafted No. 1, following Wilson in 2018. Boston, who averages 14.8 points and 8.4 rebounds shooting 62.1%, is the first rookie All-Star starter since 2014 and just the eighth in league history.

Gray makes her first career All-Star appearance as a reserve in her first season with the Atlanta Dream after playing the previous six years for the Dallas Wings. She played alongside Wilson on South Carolina’s 2017 national championship team, and the two have remained close in the pros. Gray is averaging a career-high 18.5 points, five rebounds and 3.1 assists for the Dream in 2023.

The only college team represented with as many All-Stars as South Carolina is Notre Dame, which has three alumni starting in the game. This is the first time multiple former Gamecocks have have been selected in the 24-year history of the WNBA All-Star game.

The 2023 All-Star game will be played July 15 (8:30 p.m., ABC) at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. Alongside Boston and Gray, Wilson’s team includes Aces guards Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young, Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale, Dream guard Cheyanne Parker, Connecticut Sun forwards Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner, and Washington Mystics forward Elena Delle Donne.