Indiana Fever's Kelsey Mitchell is the most deserving player to make the WNBA playoffs

INDIANAPOLIS – When coach Christie Sides arrived at shootaround Wednesday morning, he wore a bright red Fever Rebel-style T-shirt with the number 0 on the back.

The number of Kelsey Mitchell, an active player for seven years.

Sides often wears jerseys commemorating her players after major successes; in June, she wore a jersey with Aliyah Boston's name on it after she was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week.

This time, it was technically a team effort. The Fever had just clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2016, ending a seven-year drought (the longest playoff drought in league history).

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In their eyes, there is one player who most deserves this playoff spot: Mitchell.

“Kelsey Mitchell, I'm just really happy for her that she gets to experience this,” Sides said before the game. “With what she's been through here, what she's done and who she is.”

Mitchell is the longest-tenured player on the Fever's roster, having been drafted No. 2 by Indiana out of Ohio State in 2018. She has seen the Fever's ups and downs (mostly downs) as they endured perhaps the worst stretch in franchise history – between 2018 and 2022, the Fever went 36-122 (.295), the worst winning percentage of the five major sports leagues in the United States.

But Mitchell was not deterred. After her four-year rookie contract, she signed a three-year extension with the Fever, covering her fifth, sixth and seventh years in the league.

She was the first person to help rebuild the Fever after Tamika Catchings retired in 2016. Although the rebuild took longer than expected, she pulled it off.

“There was a lot of hard work involved in laying the foundation stone, and I appreciate it,” Mitchell said.

Before the Fever's defining moment, Mitchell had been playing the best basketball of her career. After the Olympic break, she scored seven straight games with over 20 points, which is a franchise record, including a 36-point game against Dallas.

She led the Fever to a 5-1 record in August and a 17-16 record overall, putting the Fever above .500 for the first time since 2019 — and the first time the Fever has been above .500 in August or later since 2016.

Then, in a somewhat unceremonious clinch, the Indiana Fever reached the playoffs late Tuesday night after losses to Chicago and Atlanta on the West Coast. Either way, it's a first for most Fever players.

“I'm most happy for Kels,” said Fever rookie Caitlin Clark. “Kelsey has been here seven years and has never made the playoffs. She definitely deserves this moment. And of course she's played really good basketball too. So she definitely helped us earn it.”

The Fever have only three players who have been to the playoffs: Temi Fagbenle and Damiris Dantas won championships with the Minnesota Lynx in 2017 and 2015, respectively. Erica Wheeler was part of the Fever's 2016 playoff team, but they lost to Phoenix in the first round.

But as for the starting lineup, which includes Mitchell, Clark, second-year Aliyah Boston and third-year players NaLyssa Smith and Lexie Hull, none of them have ever played on another team or reached a playoff berth in their professional careers. The Fever's playoff berth is the result of homegrown talent over several years, especially since Fever general manager Lin Dunn took the helm in February 2022.

And Mitchell, the Fever's top scorer every season since 2019, is leading by example.

“(Mitchell) got my award for their consistency,” Sides said. “… They're all talented, very young and talented, and they're all trying to figure it out together. And a lot of times that happens with veteran players that get put on a team and experience the success that we're having, especially in the second half of the year, but we do that with all the drafted players. That's our starting lineup. All the players were drafted by the Indiana Fever, which I thought was incredible.”

Indiana Fever's Kelsey Mitchell is the most deserving player to make the WNBA playoffs

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Indiana Fever's Kelsey Mitchell is the most deserving player to make the WNBA playoffs

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