Raven Johnson Has Ties To Both Caitlin Clark And Aliyah Boston. Now, She'll Team Up With Both In Indiana

When fans think of Raven Johnson, they think of Caitlin Clark. That fateful moment in 2023 has ordained it so.

For perhaps the wrong reasons, the former South Carolina guard went viral when Clark (then the superstar of Iowa) waved her off and opted not to defend her three NCAA tournaments ago. Fast forward to 2026, and the two court generals now find themselves on the same team as Johnson went 10th overall in the recently concluded WNBA Draft.

In the W, players who had ugly confrontations in college are expected to set aside their history of animosity to come together for their pro squad. In the case of Johnson, that means setting aside the deep emotional hurt that she felt after being belittled by an athlete who was fast becoming an international icon.

“I got bashed, I got bullied…I wanted to quit basketball at that time,” Johnson admitted on the “I Am Athlete” podcast.

Johnson, however, did no such thing. As a matter of fact, when the Gamecocks had their March Madness rematch with the Hawkeyes in 2024, Johnson put the clamps on Clark to help South Carolina win the national championship.

Here’s another layer of connective tissue for the rookie: The first time Johnson celebrated a natty win, she was sharing the court with Aliyah Boston. In 2022, the Gamecocks leaned heavily on Boston to turn back UConn, and the 6-foot-5 center ended up taking home Most Outstanding Player honors.

The following year, after Boston’s Final Four swansong with South Carolina, she joined the WNBA Draft and was selected first overall. The team that selected her: none other than the Fever.

So now, Johnson will have both highlights and lowlights of her college career featured in the Fever locker room. There’s Clark, who put her in some of the most trying times of her basketball life. And there’s Boston, who conquered the mountaintop with her in South Carolina.

All college colors, of course, are thrown right out of the window, when Fever head coach Stephanie White holds her first day of training camp. What will matter most for Johnson is not what she went through in the past, but what she can offer to Indiana in the next chapter of her life as a hooper. It just so happens that Clark and Boston, two former no. 1 picks that she’s familiar with, will be playing major roles moving forward.