Kelsey Mitchell, a seven-year vet, deserves this playoff berth the most, Fever say

INDIANAPOLIS — Walking into shootaround on Wednesday morning, coach Christie Sides sported a bright-red, Fever rebel-style t-shirt jersey emblazoned with a No. 0 on the back.

The number of seven-year veteran Kelsey Mitchell.

Sides frequently wears shirts commemorating her players after big accomplishments; in June, she wore a shirt with Aliyah Boston‘s name on it after she won Eastern Conference Player of the Week.

This time, it was technically a team accomplishment. The Fever had just clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2016, ending a seven-season drought (which was tied for the longest playoff drought in league history).

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In her eyes, there’s one player that deserves this playoff berth the most: Mitchell.

“Kelsey Mitchell, I just am really happy for her getting to experience this,” Sides said pregame. “With what she’s gone through here, and what she’s done and who she is.”

Mitchell is the longest-tenured player on the Fever roster, as Indiana drafted her at No. 2 out of Ohio State in 2018. She has been through the ups and downs (mostly downs) of the Fever as they went through likely the worst stretch in franchise history — between 2018-22, the Fever went 36-122 (.295) for the worst winning percentage of the five major sports leagues in the U.S.

But Mitchell never wavered. Following her four-year rookie contract, she signed a three-year extension with the Fever to cover her fifth, sixth, and seventh years in the league.

She was the first part of the Fever’s rebuild following Tamika Catchings’ retirement in 2016. Although that rebuild took longer than expected, she saw it through.

“There was a lot of hard work in the foundation that was laid, so I appreciate it,” Mitchell said.

Leading up to the Fever’s clinching moment, Mitchell had been playing some of the best basketball in her career. She had a franchise-record seven straight 20+ point games coming out of the Olympic break, including one 36-point game against Dallas.

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

Then, in what was a slightly unceremonious clinch, the Indiana Fever make the playoffs late on Tuesday night after Chicago and Atlanta lost on the West Coast. Either way, it’s a first-time accomplishment for most of the Fever players.

“I’m definitely most happy for Kels,” Fever rookie Caitlin Clark said. “Like, Kelsey has been at this place for seven years, and, you know, has never been at the playoff. She definitely deserves this moment. And obviously she’s been playing really good basketball, too. So she’s definitely, you know, helped us, helped us earn it.”

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

But when it comes to the starting lineup, which includes Mitchell, Clark, second-year Aliyah Boston and third-years NaLyssa Smith and Lexie Hull, none of them have ever been on a different team or seen a playoff berth in their professional careers. The Fever’s playoff berth is a result of homegrown talent over multiple years, starting especially when Fever general manager Lin Dunn took over in February 2022.

And Mitchell, the Fever’s leading scorer every season since 2019, has been leading the way.

“(Mitchell) got my award for how she’s just been so consistent,” Sides said. “… They’re all talented, very young and talented, and so they’re all trying to figure it out together. And a lot of times this happens with veteran players that they get put on a team, and they get to experience, you know, the success that we’re having right now in the second half of the year, but we’re doing it with all drafted players. That’s our starting lineup. All Indiana Fever drafted players, which I thought was an incredible thing.”

But Mitchell has always had high expectations; while making it into the playoffs was the Fever’s main goal this season, she knows they can take it a couple steps farther.

“It’s obviously a really big step for us, but it’s not enough,” Mitchell said at shootaround on Wednesday. “Clinching is always a good step, but there’s more. There’s more that we want to accomplish, and there’s more out there to get. That’s what I want, and that’s what my team wants too.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell deserves this playoff berth the most