WNBA DRAFT

April 14, 2025

Aaliyah Nye

Las Vegas Aces

Q. Your former teammate, Sarah Ashlee Barker, called you a couple moments ago that you are the best shooter in the country in her opinion. Can you speak to your reaction to that and how would you describe having played with her this past season?

AALIYAH NYE: Yeah, my coaches, my teammates, my parents, my support system, they always say that I'm the best shooter in the nation. I'm just so blessed to have a support system like them to just give me confidence. She's just an amazing leader, an amazing teammate and an amazing person all around. I just loved playing with her. Also I was like, wait, how far is L.A. from Vegas? Because we're going to be on the West Coast.

Yeah, I'm just blessed to have her as a teammate and to have played with her for three years. She's an amazing person.

Q. I'm just curious if you can take us through what the emotion was like. Obviously you came to cheer on your teammate and then you get called. What was that moment like for you?

AALIYAH NYE: It's very nerve-racking. I got very nervous. I'm excited, obviously, to be picked. I'm just very blessed. There's so many people that have supported me through this whole journey, so I was just very excited and also nervous at the same time.

Q. There's been a lot of great things that you and your teammates have done, but one of the common themes is you guys never care about the individual accomplishments and you care about yourself and the team. Expand on that and what you can do to take that with you into the W.

AALIYAH NYE: Yeah, when you're coming into the W, you're playing with great players. So you're not going to get all the shine like you may have done in college. I think just having that value to my team and my teammates is very important. We share the love, and all we care about is getting wins. I think it'll just carry over to the W.

I just want to say thanks for covering us, too.

Q. We understand that at every level you've got to prove yourself and you've got to make sure that you're bringing it because at any given moment something can happen. Who are you excited about facing up against the most that's going to really make you bring it?

AALIYAH NYE: I'm excited to play everyone. I mean, it's an amazing experience to be able to play in the W, and I'm just going to work as hard as I can to go out there and compete every single day.

Q. One thing I wanted to point out is you are now one of the 10 women coming from Alabama to ever be drafted. I just want to ask, what does it mean to be a part of that history and to be that 10th player?

AALIYAH NYE: I would just say Alabama is growing. The coaches, what they've done there these past three years that I've been here is amazing. They recruit people with good morals and just hard workers, and I'm just proud to represent Alabama.

I just hope that it continues to get more WNBA players that want to play at Alabama and just continue to grow Alabama as a program.

Q. Just talk about on the basketball court, you're joining a team here with one of the best point guards that the league has ever seen and also one of the best power forwards in A'ja Wilson. How exciting is having that opportunity to maybe get a lot more open shots with that group?

AALIYAH NYE: Yeah, so having a point guard that can find you is really important, especially as a shooter. But I'm just excited to space the floor for A'ja and get her more looks and other people. With my ability to shoot, people have to guard me and stay connected, and I think I space the floor really well.

Even if I'm not getting those shots, I'm just excited to just help my teammates.