UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The championship version of Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever could never have been built in one season. No one, from the general manager to the fiercely competitive Clark, was blind to it.
“It’s a great taste of what’s possible for this organization and for this franchise,” Clark said after wrapping up the final 40 minutes of his sensational rookie season. “And we have a lot to hold our heads high on.”
Fever almost forced a match 3 against a much more experienced opponent The Connecticut Sun team at Mohegan Sun Arena on Wednesday night. The final minutes felt like a classic Clark fairy tale ending that has captivated millions for nearly a full calendar year.
She led a mini-Fever run with five minutes left on a fadeaway basket and a pass to Lexie Hull that set up Temi Fagbenle for a three-pointer, then capped it off with a three-pointer that gave the Fever their first lead since 1:29 of the first quarter. Once again, the Fever took the lead on a pass to Aliyah Boston.
But the rewards don’t come that quickly. That wasn’t the case for Clark at Iowa, either. The Fever’s offense petered out and The Sun capped Indiana’s best season since 2016 with an 87-81 victory in the same place where the year began.
“This team won five games three years ago,” Clark said. “So we’re a young group, a pretty inexperienced group, but we came together and had a lot of fun playing together. That’s the worst sometimes, you feel like you’re playing your best basketball and then it has to stop.”
Clark improved as the season went on, going from a franchise-high 10 turnovers to a 25-point performance with nine assists, six rebounds, a steal, a block and three turnovers in the Finals. She played all 40 minutes alongside teammate Kelsey Mitchell and ignited the game with an opening three-pointer, a sign that this wouldn’t be the bad shooting night fans saw in Game 1.
She finished fourth in the MVP rankings and is a first-team All-WNBA candidate. The Associated Press unanimously voted her Rookie of the Year. The league’s ROY Award is all but assured. Records, both rookie and all-game, have exploded.
And the Fever reached the playoffs for the first time since 2016, a goal they made much of after years of living in the basement of the standings as the league’s motto. From 2017-22, the Fever went 45-147 (.234) with just one season above .300. The lottery picks weren’t helpful; they were wasted.
In 2022, the Fever finished the season with a franchise-worst 5-31 (.139) record, and general manager Lin Dunn brought in Christie Sides as head coach. They got the No. 1 pick and drafted national champion Boston out of South Carolina. The 6-foot-5 center led them to a 13-27 season — tying the franchise’s most wins since 2017 — and won the ROY.
“My rookie season, I think it was a rebuilding year,” Boston said. “And so when you look at a rebuilding year, I mean, everybody wants to go for the championship and bring home a ring and everything. But I think when you look at basketball as a whole, and when you look at where you start to where you are now, it’s about stepping stones. I think in two seasons, we’ve taken the right steps to move forward, and I’m excited for what the future holds.”
“We are growing. I think it is important to keep that in mind.”
The Las Vegas Aces were drafted No. 1 three straight seasons from 2017-19, lost in the Finals in 2020, and failed to win a title with their core group until 2022. The same goes for the Seattle Storm every time they were drafted No. 1 twice in a row.
Still, the Fever were expected to be good. Great, even. Expectations were sky-high, even as they dominated a first series filled with the game’s best teams and veterans. The outside noise grew louder after a 1-9 start. They rebounded, became one of the hottest teams after the All-Star/Olympic break and secured sixth place at 20-20.
“We actually made the playoffs after starting 1-8, and it’s an incredible story to tell,” Sides said.
There was no pessimism in this defeat, nor a feeling of immense discontent after the defeat of the first game. Of course, there was disappointment in the way they played and the way they deviated from the game plan. But it was an opportunity to learn for the future.
Boston will be under a rookie contract through 2025 with an option for 2026. Clark’s is through 2026 and 2027, respectively. Mitchell is an unrestricted free agent who the Fever will likely be a good candidate to keep. They’ll court big-time free agents and a deep draft to bolster the bench.
“We definitely have the elements to live great years ahead of us (with) this young talent that we have,” Sides said.
Sides said she’ll take a few weeks to decompress and get “a good night’s sleep and not wake up talking about basketball all the time.” Boston, who worked in the studio for women’s college basketball last year, said now that she has a feel for the faster pace the Fever play, she’ll have a better idea of offseason training plans.
Clark is ready to take a break.
“I feel like basketball really took over my life for a year,” Clark said.
THE “Crossing at Kinnick” who opened her senior season at Iowa was almost a year ago, on Oct. 15, 2023. She chased and broke Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA scoring record, a mark many thought was untouchable. The record holder led Iowa to a second straight Final Four after the Hawkeyes had never gotten there before her. In the same week, she appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and officially became the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft. Crowds welcomed her to Indianapolis and never left all summer as the Fever broke attendance records.
She didn’t have time to think about it all, or pick a favorite moment out of all of them. She focused more on the relationships she built and the people around her when she accomplished all of this.
As for her assessment of her own rookie season, it is also delicate. She is a fierce competitor and always looking for more.
“I feel like I had a good year,” Clark said. “But for me, the fun part is I feel like I’m just scratching the surface, and I’m kind of a nitpicker about everything I do, and I know I want to help this franchise, get better than my teammates, be better for my teammates, and I know there’s a lot of work to do to continue to get better. So that’s what I’m most excited about. I feel like I can continue to get better, and before we know it, I’m sure we’ll all be back here and ready for next year.”
The championship version of the Fever and Clark is closer, but still in charge.
