INDIANAPOLIS — It’s never boring for the Indiana Fever, but these last few weeks have brought a different kind of chaos. The WNBA labor negotiations that finally yielded a new deal on March 20 turned the truncated offseason into a mad dash to get ready for the 2026 season opener, with an expansion draft for new teams in Toronto and Portland and free agency for everyone and of course the 2026 WNBA draft before the season starts May 8.
“A really wild stretch,” Fever general manager Amber Cox was calling it Wednesday during the Fever’s annual media day.
“A little chaotic,” is how Fever coach Stephanie White put it.
“Oh my gosh,” free-agent forward Monique Billings said of the offseason. “Bananas.”
To recap, via USA Today: A lot just happened — here’s where it stands as WNBA camps open
For Cox and Fever president Kelly Krauskopf, the new CBA meant immediate negotiations of groundbreaking, seven-figure contracts for Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston before the franchise could add complementary pieces around those two stars and Caitlin Clark. One of those pieces, high-profile veteran Sophie Cunningham, went viral earlier this week for comments she made about the contract she received the Fever, comments that bemoaned the offer she didn’t get.
It’s been a lot, one tidal wave after another – but then, the Indiana Fever are comfortable in these waters.
Last season, for example. Last season was a lot. An injury to Clark, the treacherous departure of veteran DeWanna Bonner, another injury to Clark, injuries to teammates, another injury to Clark, injuries to almost everyone else on the team.
Then the unexpected, almost storybook playoff run. The shorthanded Fever stunned the Atlanta Dream in the first round before taking the eventual 2025 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces to Game 5 in the WNBA semifinals.
Oh, and in that final winner-take-all game, Fever star Kelsey Mitchell collapsed under the basket after losing the feeling in her legs. Mitchell was transported to a Las Vegas hospital with what has been described as a life-threatening injury.
So if the 2026 WNBA season is off to chaotic start for everyone around the league – if it’s really wild, even bananas – well, advantage Indiana Fever. Because this team knows chaos. It has learned to thrive in it since the arrival of Caitlin Clark in 2024.
Speaking of that.
The Fever’s media day Wednesday is about to get chaotic. Caitlin Clark is finishing up her news conference with local, national and even – course – international reporters, and after she’s answered every question, she remembers something.
“Oh wait,” she tells reporters. “I have a question.”
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Caitlin Clark turns tables on media
“There’s always cameras in my face,” Clark had said earlier, “so I’m used to that.”
Now she’s about to turn the tables on reporters, because here comes her question.
“Can you guys all go stand over there?”
That’s her question. Now Clark is lifting something up toward her face, and is that really a…? Yes. Yes, it is.
“I’m going to get you on my film camera,” she says, holding up an ancient contraption that takes pictures but isn’t a cellphone. A camera, you call that. Or a “film camera,” as Clark puts it.
“You guys always take photos of me,” she says, “so go over there and act like you like each other. I know you’re all…”
Clark trails off, then picks it back up.
“And you’re going to smile for me, OK? Smile big,” she says. “This (camera) is from, like, 1990. It’s not that good.”
The reporters, most of them anyway, do as they’re told. They all go stand over there. They act like they like each other, even if they’re all … well, anyway, they smile big for her and her camera from, like, 1990.
“And if some of you don’t get in, don’t be mad at me,” Clark’s teasing the group, and she’s in a great mood after returning to full health. ‘You’re not going to squeeze in? They’re not going to bite.”
Welcome to the 2026 Indiana Fever.
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Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell is “heart of this team”
Thank goodness for Kelsey Mitchell, you know?
For almost a decade Mitchell has been the most consistent presence – the only consistent presence, really – for a franchise that has seen its coach (White) and leading executive (Krauskopf) come and go … and come back.
Doyel in 2025: Kelsey Mitchell is best player in Fever-Dream WNBA playoffs series
Along the way the Fever, the most popular franchise in the WNBA when Tamika Catchings roamed the floor from 2002-16, plummeted in popularity only to rise again in recent years. Clark’s arrival in 2024 brought back old friends and attracted new trolls to the fan base, which has led to some – OK, most – of the chaos in recent years.
And there’s Kelsey Mitchell, plugging along, changing roles after last season’s spate of injuries – going from one-dimensional scorer to playmaking point guard, and earning All-WNBA honors along the way. Last season, her eighth in the league, felt like a coming-out party for Mitchell, whose talent and toughness were celebrated as never before, even as she was playing until … well, how did Amber Cox put it Wednesday?
“Kelsey (was) playing until literally the wheels fell off,” Cox said.
Clark was saying the same thing, minutes later.
“She’s given a lot of herself,” Clark said of Mitchell. “Last year, she’s literally out there until her legs didn’t work anymore. l think that kind of sums up everything she’s given to this organization.”
Mitchell re-signed with the Fever, having received the first $1 million contract in team history – days later, Boston received the first EPIC extension in league history – and everyone in the organization wants the Fever to win … for her.
“We want to get one for her,” White said.
“I can’t say enough great things about Kelsey,” Cox said. “She’s the heart of this team.”
Listen to Mitchell describe her decision to return to the Fever, and you’ll get a glimpse of why she’s so revered.
“The state of Indiana has always been really graceful to me,” she said.
Now Mitchell is talking about what will make this upcoming season bear fruit, crediting Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston for helping create a winning culture.
“With CC and AB,” she said, “we’ve done a really good job with building a chemistry that can’t be broken.”
That chemistry will be tested during the course of the season, as it is for every team in the WNBA (and beyond). The Fever being the Fever, though, they have a unique issue that already has generated legitimate headlines and brought out the illegitimate trolls. Referring here to the Fever’s selection of South Carolina guard Raven Johnson in the first round of the 2026 WNBA Draft, a move that seemed to shock Johnson on draft night and triggered stories locally and abroad about an incident in the 2023 Final Four.
More: Aliyah Boston reacts to Caitlin Clark, Raven Johnson Final Four wave off
You remember the incident: Iowa vs. South Carolina, Caitlin Clark defending Raven Johnson, when Clark literally waves off the idea of leaving the lane to prevent Johnson from shooting an open 3-pointer.
The fallout from that, highlighted as usual by trolls on social media, was such that Johnson has said she considered quitting basketball. Three years later, she and Clark are teammates? The world will be watching – the world is always watching this team – to see how they get along.
Johnson said she and Clark haven’t spoken about the 2023 incident – “That’s in the past,” she said – and has spoken glowingly of Clark since joining the Fever.
“They were just throwing things at me (Tuesday), like, ‘Oh gosh, they run a lot of plays,’” Johnson said. “Caitlin Clark, she was helping me through all the hard times (and) I was asking her a lot of questions. … I asked her probably 1,000 questions.”
More questions will come for Johnson, for Clark, for the Fever, for the WNBA. A chaotic 2026 offseason – “a really wild stretch,” you might call it – has led to the expansion draft and free agency and the WNBA draft and now to training camp. Which will lead to the season opener May 9 against Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and the Dallas Wings. Which will lead to … well, who knows what it will lead to over the next few months?
At times it will be bananas. But the Fever are hungry, and they’ll be ready to eat.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Doyel: WNBA season barrels down on chaotic start. Good thing the Fever thrive in chaos
Reporting by Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
