‘A very real concern’: Top free agents reportedly hesitant to join Indiana Fever
· Yahoo Sports
With Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston leading the way, the Indiana Fever should be one of the most attractive destinations in the WNBA. But as the team heads into a pivotal offseason, it appears that many players around the league don’t see it that way.
According to a new report, the environment surrounding the Fever, both online and inside the arena, is hurting the franchise’s reputation among top free agents. And one reporter says that for some players, it’s about much more than perception.
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Fever’s Offseason
The Fever’s season ended with a first-round loss to the Las Vegas Aces, despite Clark putting together the best season of her career. Now, the team faces a big offseason, with Kelsey Mitchell, widely seen as the top player on the free agent market, and Sophie Cunningham both set to hit free agency.
The atmosphere around the team has been a hot topic all season. Earlier this month, general manager Amber Cox pushed back on criticism of Fever fans, calling the attacks baseless. A day later, Mitchell opened up about how hard it can be to play for the Fever, pointing to the hate that shows up in her DMs.
Bomani Jones later argued that the Fever have a “big problem” with their fans that they don’t know how to solve. Mitchell’s comments also prompted The Athletic’s Annie Costabile and Brian Hamilton to look into how the Fever are viewed around the league, and in their report, they spoke with a dozen agents who collectively represent more than 60 of the league’s players.
The same day that report was published, team president Kelly Krauskopf announced that she was stepping down. Later that day, the Fever fired Cox, according to The Athletic.
‘Not Just Perception’
Costabile went into more detail about her reporting during an appearance on Flagrant and Funny with Cari Champion and Jemele Hill.
“From there what I learned from, again, multiple sources, players, agents, league stakeholders is that the perception of the Fever is very much impacting their reputation amongst top free agents. And it’s not just perception for some players, it’s a very stark reality,” Costabile said on the show.
Costabile said that many people want to write the issue off as something that only happens on social media.
“But what I learned again from trusted sources is this isn’t just a circumstance online. This is a very real concern that players have about playing there because of what they’ve experienced,” she said.
Costabile explained that the online harassment players face, which can include “threatening messages, racist messages, misogynistic, all of it,” often follows them into the arena.
“When you step into that arena, then you’re carrying with you the weight of all the things that you’ve received via this, you know, this screen,” Costabile said.
Racial Slurs Reported
But Costabile made it clear that the problem isn’t limited to what happens online.
“That being said, there’s also experiences that [a] source relayed to me that have happened in real life, including multiple players being called a racial slur in Indiana,” Costabile said.
She added that according to the source, those players’ experiences in Indiana were unique.
“This source who shared this information with me has said their clients have not relayed this happening anywhere else but in Indiana,” Costabile said.
Needless to say, the Fever have a lot of work to do this offseason, and not all of it will happen on the court.
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