Entering the WNBA as a rookie is never an easy transition. Then comes being one for the Indiana Fever. Whether they have played against Caitlin Clark in the NCAA or not, the attention she brings to their WNBA games is unparalleled, and the rookies are getting to know it after one of Sophie Cunningham’s harmless jokes turned a spark into a wildfire.
The Indiana Fever was already defending rumors of friction between Stephanie White and Clark. That’s when Cunningham posted a cartoon that indicated that the two improvised on the Washington Mystics game-winner logo-3 by the point guard, essentially disobeying White’s game plan. It didn’t take long for the controversy to explode, with the rookies questioning how their seniors even handle the attention.
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“All of our new rookies, they are seeing that every little thing they like, every little thing they post, even the inside jokes or what we call each other—everyone just blows it out of proportion,” Sophie Cunningham said on her ‘Show Me Something’ podcast. “It drove a couple of them kind of crazy last week.
“They were like, ‘How do you guys do this? And I’m like, ‘You just can’t think about it. You’ve got to keep doing you. Don’t let it bother you.’ Being in Indiana, everything is on full microscope times a million. And you have to have thick skin to play here ’cause they eat everything up.”
The Indiana Fever is arguably the most popular team in the league ever since they drafted Clark in the 2024 WNBA draft. While the hordes of fans she brought along with her from the NCAA were a shock to everyone in her rookie year, the team has eventually accepted this is how things are going to be. However, the team now has three rookies.
Raven Johnson, Justine Pissot, and Grace Van Slooten still need to get used to how quickly people put them on a pedestal and also tear them down. Since the beginning of this season, they’ve already seen a handful of narratives surrounding the Indiana Fever.
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The biggest one, however, is the tension between Clark and White. It all started when White apparently did not praise the point guard after her valiant efforts in games. It only amplified when the two had an animated discussion on the sidelines in a blowout loss to the Portland Fire. And the final straw so far came with the game-winner play by Clark.
With the Mystics leading 75-76 and 4.3 seconds remaining in the regulation, Sophie Cunningham sent the ball inbound right to Caitlin Clark, positioned on the logo on the opposite end of the court. With no one to defend her, probably thinking that the ball would go to Kelsey Mitchell or Aliyah Boston in the paint, the point guard drained her most comfortable and iconic shot, 31 feet away from the net. The comeback was thrilling. But the noises after that eclipsed it.
Cunningham posted a cartoon on her social media that essentially showed that the team did not follow the play White had drawn. After it blew up, Cunningham clarified everything:
“I’m telling you, and I pretty much spill everything on this podcast: that is the exact play we drew up. They just messed up on defense. There was miscommunication.”
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Raven Johnson, being at South Carolina, is used to the extra attention. But it was nowhere close to what Fever experiences, as she has herself once confessed:
“Oh, the standard is high,” said Johnson on being drafted to the Fever. “I mean, coming from a program like South Carolina, the standard was high there, but coming here, I was like, this is like, me being at South Carolina, like, the standard is so high they want to win the national championship.”
In addition, they have entered the team at a crucial stage. Clark was injured for most of 2025, and the team reached the semifinals regardless.
The fans were eagerly waiting for a strong comeback season from Clark that would elevate the Fever from a Playoff team to a contender. This has boosted the critiques even further, as the start of the season has not been too great, with the Fever’s record reading 7-5.
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The Indiana rookies aren’t the only ones going through this learning curve, though.
The league, as a whole, is in this transition. Not many are used to the criticism the elevated viewership brings. The Olivia Miles-Azzi Fudd controversy shows exactly that.
The Lynx social media team posted a comparison of Fudd and Miles’ stats. It also went on the Jumbotron in the stadium during the game. Eventually, they had to delete the post because of the backlash.
A stat comparison between the No. 1 and the No. 2 pick is arguably the most common thing in any sports league. They were the front-runners for the ‘Rookie Of The Year’ and will be tied together for the rest of their careers.
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The league is indeed continuing to grow, and there is always a darker side to the popularity that is beginning with the Fever. However, if the players continue to simply be who they are, none of the spotlight, good or bad, would matter.
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