UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The championship version of Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever was never going to be built in one season. No one, from the general manager to the highly competitive Clark, knew that.
“It’s a small glimpse of what’s possible for this organization and for this franchise,” Clark said after closing out the final 40 minutes of his sensational rookie season. “And there’s a lot of things we have to hold our heads high for.”
On Wednesday night, the Fever nearly forced a third game against a much more experienced Connecticut Sun team at Mohegan Sun Arena. The final minutes conveyed feelings of a classic Clark fairytale ending that has captivated millions for nearly a full calendar year.
She sparked a short Fever run with five minutes remaining with a jumper and a pass to Lexie Hull that set up a Temi Fagbenle 3-pointer, then capped it with a 3-pointer that gave the Fever their first lead since 1:29 of the first quarter. The Fever took the lead again on a pass to Aliyah Boston.
But results don’t come so quickly. Neither did they for Clark in Iowa. The Fever’s offense fizzled out and the Sun closed out Indiana’s best season since 2016 with an 87-81 win at the same place it started the year.
“This team won five games three years ago,” Clark said. “We’re a young group, a fairly inexperienced group, but we come together and have a lot of fun playing together. Sometimes the worst thing is you feel like you’re playing your best basketball and then it all has to end.”
Clark got better as the season went on, from a franchise-record 10-turnover debut to a 25-point performance with nine assists, six rebounds, one steal, one block and three turnovers down the stretch. She played all 40 minutes alongside backline partner Kelsey Mitchell and sparked the game with an early 3-pointer, an indication that it wouldn’t be the off shooting night fans saw in Game 1.
She finished fourth in MVP voting 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 guaranteed to be hers. Records, both as a rookie and overall, fell en masse.
And the Fever made the playoffs for the first time since 2016, a goal they have publicly maintained after years of living in the basement of the standings as the joke of the league. From 2017 to 2022, 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 with a franchise-worst 5-31 (.139) record and general manager Lin Dunn hired Christie Sides as head coach. They earned the No. 1 pick and selected national champion Boston out of South Carolina. The 6-foot-5 center led them to a 13-27 season, matching the franchise’s most wins since 2017, and won Rookie of the Year honors.
“I think my rookie season was a rebuilding year,” Boston said. “And when you think about a rebuilding year, I mean, everyone wants to jump into the championship and take home a ring and all that. But I think when you look at basketball as a whole, and when you look at where you started and where you are now, it’s all about leaps and bounds. 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 on the rise. I think it is important to maintain that focus.”
The Las Vegas Aces were selected No. 1 in three consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2019, lost in the Finals in 2020 and didn’t win a title until 2022 with their core group. The same thing happened to the Seattle Storm every time they were selected No. 1 in a row.
Still, the Fever were expected to perform well. Excellent, even. Expectations were sky-high, even as they soundly defeated an initial group of the game’s best teams and veterans. The outside noise grew louder amid a 1-9 start. They rebounded, became one of the hottest teams after the All-Star/Olympic break and secured the No. 6 seed at 20-20.
“We made the playoffs after starting 1-8, and that’s an incredible story to talk about,” Sides said.
There was no pessimism in this defeat, nor was there an air of immense dissatisfaction after the loss in the first match. Of course there was disappointment in how they played and how they deviated from the game plan, but it was a learning opportunity for the future.
Boston is on a rookie contract through 2025 with an option for 2026. Clark’s is through 2026 and 2027, respectively. Mitchell is an unrestricted free agent and the Fever are likely to make a strong offer to land him. There are major free agents to court and a deep draft to bolster the bench.
“We definitely have the pieces to have great years ahead with this young talent that we have,” Sides said.
Sides said she’ll take a couple of weeks to decompress and enjoy a “good night’s sleep and not wake up talking about basketball all the time.” Boston, who worked on the study for women’s college basketball last year, said now that she has a sense of the faster pace the Fever played, she’ll have a better idea of offseason training plans.
Clark is ready to take a breather.
“I feel like basketball has really consumed my life for a year,” Clark said.
The “Crossover at Kinnick” that opened her senior season at Iowa was nearly a full year ago, on Oct. 15, 2023. She chased down and broke Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA scoring record, a mark many believed untouchable. The record holder led Iowa to a second straight Final Four after the Hawkeyes had never made it before her time. 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 shattered attendance records.
She hasn’t had time to reflect on any of that, nor is she able to pick a favorite moment from all of them. She’s more focused on the relationships she built and the people who surrounded her when she accomplished all of that.
As for her assessment of her own rookie season, it’s also a complicated one. She’s a demanding player and an intense competitor who always wants more.
“I feel like I’ve had a solid year,” Clark said. “But for me, the fun part is I feel like I’m just scratching the surface, and I’m one to critique every single thing I do, and I know I want to help this franchise, get even better the same way my teammates got even better, be better for my teammates, and I know there’s a lot of work that we need to continue to get better at. So that’s what I’m most excited about. I feel like I can continue to get a lot better, and before we know it, I’m sure we’ll all be back here and ready for next year.”
The championship version of Fever and Clark is closer, but still charges.