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The Indiana Fever have been the subject of heightened media scrutiny throughout the last week. Ahead of their Saturday night game, a 83–75 loss against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center, it was the main thing reporters wanted to address.
“I don’t know why we’re still on this,” Caitlin Clark told reporters on Saturday. “We didn’t blatantly sit there and talk about everything you guys were writing and what’s in the media, we’re just talking about how we can be better as a team.”
“I understand there’s always going to be people that have opinions, and I respect that—it doesn’t make it right, doesn’t make it wrong. For myself, I just try to keep the main thing the main thing,” Clark also said.
The speculation kicked off following the Fever’s 100–84 loss to the Portland Fire on May 30, where a clip of Caitlin Clark arguing with head coach Stephanie White on the bench surfaced. A day later, Skip Bayless posted a false report that White was being fired and replaced with Iowa coach Jan Jensen.
Then, on Tuesday, Fever beat reporter Scott Agness revealed that the Fever revoked his credentials for his reporting on Clark’s injury status. And throughout the week, former sports columnist Jason Whitlock and Mychal Thompson, father of Klay Thompson, both posted on X that the Fever were looking to trade Clark and tied her to the Sparks.
Several members of the Fever, including Clark, White Aliyah Boston, Monique Billings, and Kelsey Mitchell, were asked about this noise on Saturday. All of them described the storylines as either false or blown out of proportion.
“Nothing is surprising, especially in the media cycle,” Boston said. “Everyone always has thoughts and opinions, and they always read articles. That’s just for clickbait.”
Boston also acknowledged, in response to a question from Front Office Sports, the microscope that Clark was under and praised how her point guard handled it. She said it was on Clark’s Fever teammates to support and “make sure she knows, ‘we’re ride-or-die for you, you’re on the squad, you’re our sister, you’re our teammate.’”
When asked about Clark and White’s disagreement against Portland, Mitchell downplayed the exchange as one that came from “a sense of love and passion.” Clark and White previously dismissed the interaction early in the week as well.
Meanwhile, Billings specifically addressed the two-hour, player-led team meeting that Sophie Cunningham said the Fever held on Monday following the Portland loss. The former Valkyries forward suggested that the meeting—which she said helped the team hold each other accountable and set goals—was “heavily talked about, I’m sure, by the media.”
“Figuring it out day by day, limiting the amount of social media I’m on helps a lot, just for my mental health,” Billings said of how she navigates the criticism her team faces. “Separating yourself from the game sometimes, like going outside, going for a walk, getting some fresh air, talking to your loved ones, pouring into yourself.”
Following their defeat at New York, the Fever have now lost three of their last four games, and have a 1–3 record on the road. Now .500 on the season, Indiana will next play in D.C. against the Washington Mystics on Monday.
Whether the noise will get louder after Indiana’s most recent loss is still to be seen. But the team made it clear beforehand that it was distancing itself.
“There’s a lot of things that happen, but rational doesn’t create a fun narrative,” White said.
USA 250 Patches
Both Boston and Mitchell were asked about the commemorative jersey patches for the United States’ 250th anniversary—unveiled by Fanatics in partnership with the White House, and currently on the Knicks and Spurs’ NBA Finals jerseys.
Boston, the Fever’s main representative in the WNBA Players Association, declined to comment on the matter, which was the same response that the WNBPA officially gave to FOS on Thursday. Meanwhile, Mitchell said she wasn’t familiar with the patches.
Sportico has reported that the WNBA All-Star Game jerseys would feature USA 250 patches. The WNBA says that nothing is official.
“Like other major sports leagues, we are exploring how to best commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary,” a WNBA spokesperson told FOS on Friday.
Las Vegas Ages forward and 2025 Fever member Brianna Turner is the only WNBA who has spoken publicly about the patches, saying that “no WNBA players would have been free 250 years ago.”
– Colin Salao contributed reporting.
