College basketball star Aliyah Boston blasts ESPN for awards show snub

College of South Carolina ladies’s basketball participant Aliyah Boston has known as out sports activities community ESPN for not inviting her to its annual ESPY Awards present. 

Boston, who was named the Naismith Girls’s Defensive Participant of the Yr final season, launched a statement on Wednesday that she was damage by the community’s choice to not invite her to the ceremony. 

After main the Gamecocks to their second nationwide championship earlier this yr, Boston was nominated for the class of finest school athlete in ladies’s sports activities. She mentioned the community didn’t have plans to televise the class regardless of televising the class final yr. 

The community rapidly modified its choice and invited Boston to the awards present, however she declined. 

“To be nominated for an ESPY this yr meant the world to me and my household,” Boston mentioned in her assertion, including that “it damage extra to see ESPN change course and invite me solely after social media caught wind of it. Respectfully, I declined.”

Boston characterised the transfer as one other second of “disrespect and erasure of Black ladies” that was dismissed as a mistake or oversight, greater than 50 years after Title IX was handed.

“To each Black lady and each Black lady: nobody can take away what God has in retailer for us. You matter. You’re invaluable. You’re a precedence. You’re seen, and you might be LOVED — don’t let anybody let you know in any other case,” Boston mentioned.

In an announcement to The State, an ESPN spokesperson mentioned Boston wasn’t invited to the awards present because of COVID-19 restrictions and a smaller venue with much less seating. 

“We’ve the utmost respect for Aliyah Boston, Daybreak Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks,” An ESPN spokesperson informed the newspaper. “As a result of each COVID restrictions and a brand new venue with a lot much less seating capability than earlier reveals, The 2022 ESPYS prioritized athlete invites to give attention to particular awards that will likely be handed out through the broadcast.”

College of South Carolina head coach and basketball legend Daybreak Staley known as the community out on Twitter for neglecting to ask Boston to the award ceremony. 

“Like actually….who within the room from @espn @ESPYS determined it was an excellent thought to not invite @MarchMadnessWBB NPOY DPOY….not one particular person was in a position to see the uproar this could trigger? There’s positively one thing fallacious with the make up of the room……the battle proceed….#WBBSTANDUP,” Staley tweeted.

The Hill has reached out to ESPN for remark.