INDIANAPOLIS — Say this for the Indiana Fever: They’re trying to manage the Caitlin Clark situation. But say this, too:
They’re failing.
What is the Caitlin Clark situation? Better question: What isn’t the Caitlin Clark situation? It’s something new all the time, every few days it feels like, with the 2026 WNBA season just five games old and there being almost as many Caitlin Clark situations for the Fever to mangle.
Er, manage.
The latest Caitlin Clark situation: The injury controversy from the Fever’s 90-73 victory Wednesday night against the Portland Fire, a game Clark unexpectedly sat out. This being the current state of the Indiana Fever, Clark dominated the conversation around a game in which she didn’t even play.
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Clark sat out with what Fever coach Stephanie White called a “back issue.” Clark didn’t practice Tuesday to get treatment and a workout, then woke up Wednesday “with some stiffness and some soreness,” White had said pregame.
By not including Clark on its injury report after Tuesday’s practice, did the Fever break WNBA injury reporting rules? Debatable, and by that I mean: The Fever don’t think they did anything wrong.
The facts – is it OK if we use facts? – would suggest otherwise. Clark didn’t practice Tuesday to get treatment and a separate workout. The Fever knew they’d be monitoring Clark’s response Wednesday morning to the workout.
Said White before the game: “We like to see, like I always say, how do you respond after a workout.”
Sounds like an injury worth reporting, doesn’t it? Not to White, no.
“Not everybody that doesn’t practice or gets a pro day is on the injury report, so that happens all the time,” White said after the game. “She wasn’t listed on the injury report earlier because we expected her to play.”
There’s an injury designation for that very situation:
Probable.
But this being another Caitlin Clark situation, the Fever didn’t do the obvious thing. They did something different, something weird, because they’re trying to manage something that cannot be managed with wordplay. Caitlin Clark causes chaos. It’s not her intention, and it’s definitely not her fault.
It just is.
The sooner the Fever figure that out, the better. Until then, expect more unnecessary days of hysteria like Wednesday, which bled into Thursday. Since taking Clark with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, the Fever have been blessed to have one of the best women’s basketball players in the league, and arguably the most popular female athlete in the world – Caitlin Clark – on their roster.
But there has been a tradeoff, this hysteria wilderness they are constantly trying to navigate. What the Fever need to figure out, and fast:
Transparency is the only way through.
Caitlin Clark’s popularity complicates everything
I drove 8 hours, took 2 ferries, and crossed the border from Canada to see #22 Caitlin Clark.
That was a sign held by a fan during Clark’s rookie season, when the Fever visited Las Vegas.
Hey Caitlin!!! It’s my (birthday) but … we came all the way from Mexico City with a gift for you!
Another sign, another fan, another town. That was Phoenix in June 2024.
Those signs are in every arena the Fever play, including Gainbridge Fieldhouse. I’ve seen fans there holding signs saying they’re from Texas, from California, from Michigan – and yes, from Iowa – just because they want Caitlin Clark to know.
Is it too much to ask that the Fever let those fans know, ahead of time, if she might not play?
Conspiracy theorists on social media – and please, don’t get me started with those bozos – suggest the Fever knew Clark wouldn’t play Wednesday but hid it because they were trying to sell tickets or worse, trying to hide the fact that she was actually suspended after she appeared to be arguing with Fever assistant coach Briann January during the game Sunday against Seattle.
Conspiracy theories are fun, for some people, but facts are better: One, the Fever have practically sold out every home game anyway. Two, the Fever would never – ever – suspend Clark for something as benign as an argument with an assistant coach.
That second point – the Fever always handle Clark with kid gloves – is part of the larger problem here.
Clark is, as I said, one of the best players in the world – and much more than that. She’s the LeBron James of the WNBA: not necessarily the best player in the league, no, but its biggest draw.
To paraphrase Billy Bob Thornton in that silly T-Mobile commercial: She’s the league’s biggest draw by, like, a lot.
That has led to the Fever doing weird things like Wednesday night, when White was careful in one breath to say Clark “is healthy, we’re not managing anything” – and in the next breath to say: “This is just a back issue that we want to make sure we give the time to be ready.”
Can anyone, much less a professional athlete, have “a back issue” and still be considered “healthy”? And if the team is “not managing anything,” and if Clark is indeed “healthy” … why didn’t she play?
It’s weird. And to be something the Fever need to try – transparent – I feel badly for everyone involved. They’re out of their depth, all of them: The Fever, the WNBA, even Caitlin Clark.
That’s not an insult. Anyone would be out of their depth, trying to manage (1) the most popular female athlete in the world (2) in a still-growing league receiving unprecedented attention (3) in a world where the discourse is dominated by the lowest common denominator on social media.
We’re watching the perfect storm. And we’re watching it swamp the Indiana Fever.
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Chaos begets chaos
Other Caitlin Clark situations this season? They started early, before the first game, when Clark didn’t speak with reporters as expected before the April 30 exhibition against Dallas. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if her name were, say, Lexie Hull or even Aliyah Boston. But her name is Caitlin Clark, so it was chaos.
And so unnecessary.
The Fever send out a pregame media availability schedule: when most team members will be available in a side room, and when two others – Stephanie White and Caitlin Clark – will be available in the larger Collins-Fuson Press Conference Room. So it was on April 30. White would be available at 6:02 p.m. Clark would be available 75-90 minutes before tipoff.
The Collins-Fuson Press Conference Room was brimming 90 minutes before tipoff. No Clark. Reporters asked: Why not?
Came the answer: Nobody requested her.
That was a new rule this season, reporters were told. Never mind what that pregame email says – Clark would speak pregame only if she were requested. Nobody knew the new rule, so nobody requested Clark. So she didn’t show up.
Stephanie White showed up pregame April 30, by the way, right around 6:02 p.m. Did anyone request her? Probably not, no. White showed up because she was supposed to show up.
What is Caitlin Clark supposed to do?
The Fever are still navigating that, and again, I get it. The Fever, the team’s media relations staff, the coach, even Clark … imagine being any of them in the eye of this 100-year-old storm. But issues like Wednesday night don’t help anyone. The Fever come off as either dishonest or incompetent, and neither is a good look.
But it’s one thing after another. Earlier this season, when Clark left the May 9 opener against Dallas – then left the sideline – to get treatment for her back in the tunnel, everyone involved said it was no big deal. White even suggested we’d see a lot more of that, from a lot more players than Clark this season.
“I think when you think about the expansion of medical teams in the W, it’s like any other professional team,” White said at practice May 11. “You have more people on duty and more hands on deck, and you can go back and you can get regular maintenance adjustments. I know everybody’s focused on Caitlin, but our other players are going back to get regular maintenance too. So, yeah, it’s gonna be something that you’re gonna consistently see.”
Last year, when Clark missed most of the season with a variety of injuries, she was already sidelined with a groin injury when she suffered a bone bruise to her right ankle during an individual workout on Aug. 7. The Fever never mentioned it to reporters, then downplayed it when the story finally leaked nearly two weeks later.
“Sources stressed to IndyStar that Clark’s tweaked ankle does not affect any potential return to play timeline,” we reported Aug. 20.
“There was no timeline or projected return to play so it’s impossible to say if it was impacted,” a Fever spokesperson said in a statement. “So it remains the same: to give Caitlin as much time needed to ensure she comes back fully healthy, which everyday she is working hard to do.”
Clark never did come back, and in October she said the ankle injury was absolutely part of the problem. “It was probably one of the worst sprains I’ve dealt with,” she told reporters.
This is the Fever’s issue: They’d rather have fun with words – Clark has a “back issue,” not a back injury … it’s “impossible to say” if one of the worst ankle sprains of her life would impact her return – than say the whole truth.
The truth is preferable, and everything you’ve read to this point in the story points to a larger truth, so get ready:
Caitlin Clark can become a free agent after the 2027 WNBA season, and her departure would devastate not just the Indiana Fever, but the Downtown Indianapolis economy. And the Fever know it. So they tread lightly, obfuscating to the point of parody, when it comes to Clark.
Chaos begets chaos. That’s the cyclonic cycle around here. Wednesday and Thursday were just two more days in the eye of the storm.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Doyel: Fever keep getting lost in the Caitlin Clark chaos. Only way through: Transparency
Reporting by Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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