COLUMBIA — South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley started texting Aliyah Boston about winning WNBA Rookie of the Year long before the league made it official on Monday.

Boston, the Indiana Fever's No. 1 draft pick in 2023, said she was trying not to get her hopes up as the overwhelming favorite, but Staley's conviction in the former Gamecocks star was unshakeable.

"Even before the award was announced she was texting me like 'Hey girl, when's it coming out?' and I'm like 'Girl we gotta wait, we don't know!' " Boston said with a laugh. "She was like no, I know it's coming. It's coming ... She has really made such an impact on my game, just being confident in what I do."

Boston averaged 14.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists in her first season and led the WNBA in field goal percentage shooting at 57.8%. She is the first player in league history to lead that category as a rookie and also the first to record more than 550 points and 325 rebounds in a season. Her 335 rebounds rank No. 2 all-time among rookies, second to Tina Charles' 398 in 2010.

Boston received all 60 first-place votes for Rookie of the Year, becoming just the fifth player to win the award unanimously. She joins Candace Parker (2008), Tina Charles (2010), Elena Delle Donne (2014) and most recently A'ja Wilson in 2018. Wilson, another former South Carolina star, won Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and led the Las Vegas Aces to a second consecutive WNBA finals appearance.

"I think it shows what Coach Staley does at South Carolina and just the top players that she produces, so that's really exciting to be in that category with A'ja," Boston said. "That is a powerful group right there, so I'm so blessed to have my name amongst them ... They're players that we all look up to, not just me."

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Boston also joins Chamique Holdsclaw in 1999 and Maya Moore in 2011 as the only Rookie of the Year winners to also start in the WNBA All-Star game. Boston is the first rookie since 2014 to start in an All-Star game and just the eighth all-time.

Awards are nothing new for Boston, who was two-time Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, 2022 consensus national player of the year and a three-time first-team All-American at South Carolina. Still, she said WNBA Rookie of the Year ranks among her most valued accomplishments behind only the Gamecocks' 2022 national championship.

"This was a really, really big dream of mine to win Rookie of the Year," Boston said. "It's up there with our natty and winning national player of the year that year ... but it's just special that I'm on the professional level and able to do this."

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This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Aliyah Boston is WNBA Rookie of the Year — and Dawn Staley called it