Next in line for Gamecock WBB jersey retirement? Answer’s not hard, Dawn Staley says
A’ja Wilson on Sunday became the fifth player in South Carolina women’s basketball program history to have their jersey retired.
Wilson is synonymous with Gamecock basketball. The homegrown legend “legitimized” the program, Dawn Staley said. Wilson helped South Carolina win its first national title in 2017 and added a plethora of individual awards to her resume before leaving for the pros in 2018.
All those things and more led to a statue being erected in her honor outside of Colonial Life Arena in 2021.
Wilson is the second of Dawn Staley’s former players to have their jersey lifted to the rafters of Colonial Life Arena. Tiffany Mitchell, who played for the Gamecocks from 2012-16, had her No. 25 jersey retired in 2023.
Now that the weekend of celebrations for Wilson is over, it’s natural to ask this question: Who’s next?
Staley offered a simple and expected answer.
“Aliyah,” she told reporters last week.
Staley, of course, was referring to former Gamecock Aliyah Boston. The core piece of Staley’s 2020 recruiting class, affectionately known as “The Freshies,” is the most-decorated student-athlete in South Carolina athletics history — an honor once held by Wilson.
Boston helped lead South Carolina to three straight Final Fours and brought the program’s second national championship back to Columbia in 2022.
“Might have to get the other statue out there,” Staley continued. “Might have to play chess with the statues.”
It’s not the first time Boston’s name has been floated for a potential jersey retirement, or a statue for that matter.
Back in 2023, Arkansas head coach Mike Neighbors hinted at the need to add a statue of Boston outside of Colonial Life Arena after her 13 points and 14 rebounds in a game against the Razorbacks.
“I wouldn’t dare make the judgment instead of y’all but, I mean, I don’t know how much room y’all got out there for another statue,” he said.
Boston’s list of accomplishments is lengthy. At South Carolina she was a four-time All-American, four-time All-SEC player, four-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year, a Wooden Award winner and a Naismith Award winner, to name a few.
Much like Wilson, she was a No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft. Boston won the Rookie of the Year award in her first season and has been named an All-Star twice in her two years as a pro.
South Carolina fans will have to wait a few years before Boston’s jersey is eligible to be retired.
There is a five-year waiting period that starts with the final season of collegiate competition for a South Carolina athlete to be considered for a jersey retirement. Boston’s final season at South Carolina ended in 2023, meaning the earliest her No. 4 jersey could be retired is 2028.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 12:17 PM.
