Indiana Fever

Team information

Inaugural season: 2000

Home stadium: Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Owner: Herb Simon

Team colors: White, blue, black, red, yellow

Overview

Founded in 2000 and affiliated with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Indiana Fever is a professional basketball team in the Eastern Conference of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Fever’s principal owner is Herb Simon, who also owns the Pacers. The team plays its home games in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, a flagship multipurpose facility in downtown Indianapolis that also serves as the Pacers’ home court.

For much of its history, the Fever has enjoyed relative success on the court. The team made twelve straight postseason appearances from 2005–2016, including three trips to the WNBA Finals. In 2012, the team capped its most successful season to date by winning the league’s championship. However, since 2017, the Fever have struggled to recapture their previous form as they have labored their way through a difficult rebuilding process.

In April 2021, the Fever unveiled a new uniform series as part of a league-wide apparel redesign effort undertaken through a partnership between Nike and the WNBA. The Fever officially adopted three new jerseys: white with yellow and red striping; blue with yellow and red striping; and black with red lettering. The Fever’s color scheme generally matches that of the NBA’s Pacers.

History

In 1999, the Gainbridge Fieldhouse opened to replace Indianapolis’s aging Market Square Arena, the longtime home of the Pacers. The WNBA granted Indiana an expansion franchise to coincide with the event. Herb Simon, the majority owner of the NBA’s Pacers, became the principal member of the team’s ownership group. Simon was joined in the ownership structure by the Simon Property Group, a real estate investment firm co-owned by Simon and his late older brother Melvin.

The Fever’s history can be broadly divided into three main eras: its early years (2000–2004); its era of sustained success (2005–2016); and an extended rebuilding phase (2017–2021). Upon its founding, the team was hyped to Indiana basketball fans under the marketing catchphrase “Catch the Fever.” Women’s basketball legend Anne Donovan coached the team during its inaugural season in 2000, guiding it to a record of 9 wins and 23 losses. Nell Fortner took over coaching duties for three seasons spanning 2001–2003 and was behind the Fever bench when the team made the first postseason appearance in its history in 2002.

In 2004, Brian Winters took over as the Fever’s head coach, marking the team’s transition from its early growing pains to a period of prolonged success. By 2005, the Fever had improved to 21–13 in the first of eight consecutive seasons with winning records. However, during the seven seasons spanning 2005–2011, the Fever lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals or finals six times. The lone exception came in 2009, when coach Lin Dun, who took over for Winter in 2008, led the team to its first WNBA Finals appearance. In the exciting five-game series, the Fever ultimately succumbed to the Phoenix Mercury, who won the deciding game by a 96–84 score.

Dunn remained behind the Fever’s bench when the team made its breakthrough in 2012 to claim its first-ever WNBA championship. That year, the Fever went 22–12 during the regular season and beat the Atlanta Dream and Connecticut Sun in the playoffs to secure its place in the WNBA Finals. There, the Fever met the Minnesota Lynx in a five-game series, which Indiana won 3–1. In their series-clinching victory, Indiana toppled Minnesota 87–78 before a crowd of more than fifteen thousand at their home arena.

Following their championship run, the Fever posted back-to-back disappointing records of 16–18 in 2013 and 2014, losing in the Eastern Conference finals both years. Stephanie White replaced Dunn as the Fever’s head coach in 2015. Under her leadership, the Fever made their third WNBA Finals appearance. There, they lost the five-game series by a 3–2 margin to the Minnesota Lynx, who won the deciding game on their home court by a 69–52 score. White departed the Fever after a 17–17 season and a first-round playoff exit in 2016.

Since 2017, the Fever have been mired in an extended rebuild that has struggled to sustain forward momentum. The project began in 2017, when Dana “Pokey” Chatman took over for White as the Fever’s head coach. Chatman failed to guide the Fever to a postseason appearance during her three years behind the Fever’s bench, posting regular-season records of 9–25, 6–28, and 13–21 before ceding the team’s head coaching job to Marianne Stanley.

The Fever’s struggles have continued under Stanley. In the 2020 WNBA season, which was shortened because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fever finished out of the playoffs with a 6–16 record. In the 2020 WNBA Draft, the Fever selected highly touted Baylor University forward Lauren Cox with the third-overall pick. The franchise hoped that Cox would become the centerpiece of its ongoing competitive rebuild, but she struggled during her two seasons with the Fever. Cox was placed on waivers during the 2021 season and ultimately claimed by the Los Angeles Sparks.

In 2021, the Fever played some of their home games at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, previously known as the Pepsi Coliseum. The temporary move was made to accommodate renovations to the Gainbridge Fieldhouse. WNBA officials expect the Fever to play at least part of the 2022 season with the Indiana Farmers Coliseum as their home, pending the completion of the Gainbridge Fieldhouse renovation project.

Notable Players

In September 2021, the ESPN sports media network published an article detailing its picks for the twenty-five greatest WNBA players of all time. In the list, the Fever was represented by Tamika Catchings (2nd place), Yolanda Griffith (13th place), and Cappie Pondexter (21st place).

Catchings played her entire fifteen-season WNBA career with the Fever and was a major contributor to the team’s three WNBA Finals appearances between 2009–2015. Considered one of the top all-around performers in WNBA history, Catchings had career averages of 16.1 points per game (PPG), 7.3 rebounds per game (RPG), and 3.3 assists per game (APG) at the time of her 2016 retirement. As of 2021, Catchings was also the only player in WNBA history to finish in the top ten league-wide in points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals in a single season—a feat she accomplished twice during her career. Among many other highlights, Catchings’ finest moment as a Fever member arguably came in 2012, when she led the team to its sole championship to date and was rewarded by being named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2012 WNBA Finals. Catchings retired a seven-time All-WNBA First Team All-Star and one-time regular-season WNBA MVP (2011).

Griffith, a 2021 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, played only one season for the Fever (2009). The star forward played most of her career with the Sacramento Monarchs but concluded it with a brief stint as a member of the Fever. She posted a 6.3 PPG average that season when she was thirty-nine years old. Griffith’s experience and veteran leadership helped propel the Fever to its first-ever WNBA Finals appearance in her lone turn with the team.

Like Griffith, Pondexter played only one season with the Fever. She was a key member of the Fever roster in 2018, when she averaged 10.2 PPG in seventeen games with the team after joining the Fever from the Los Angeles Sparks. Pondexter is best-known for her success with the Phoenix Mercury, with whom she won two WNBA championships (2007, 2009) and a WNBA Finals MVP award (2007). Also like Griffith, Pondexter opted to retire following her late-career sojourn with the Fever.

Other high-profile players from Fever history include Rita Williams and Teaira McCowan. Williams starred for the team during its early years and was a WNBA All-Star in 2001 when she averaged 11.9 PPG across thirty-two appearances for the Fever. McCowan was selected by the Fever with the third pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft and quickly established herself as a star player for the rebuilding franchise. She has become a mainstay of the Fever frontcourt in her brief career, posting averages of 10.0, 10.9, and 11.3 PPG in her first three WNBA seasons.

Bibliography

“2021 Indiana Fever Uniforms.” Women's National Basketball Association, 2024, fever.wnba.com/jersey/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

Ariail, Cat. “Why Sacramento Monarchs Legend Yolanda Griffith Is Hall-of-Fame Worthy.” SB Nation, 31 Dec. 2020, www.swishappeal.com/wnba/2020/12/31/22204386/wnba-hall-fame-yolanda-griffith-sacramento-monarchs-mvp-champion-defensive-player-year-abl-olympics. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

“Indiana Fever.” Basketball Reference, 2024, www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/teams/IND/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

Kirven, J.L. “Indiana Fever Waive Lauren Cox Just a Year After Drafting Her No. 3 Overall.” Indianapolis Star, 27 June 2021, eu.indystar.com/story/sports/basketball/wnba/fever/2021/06/27/wnba-news-indiana-fever-waives-lauren-cox-2020-draft-no-3-pick/5365296001/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

“WNBA’s Greatest Players of All Time: Ranking the 25 Best in League History.” ESPN, 21 Sep. 2021, www.espn.com/wnba/story/‗/id/32210623/wnba-greatest-players-all-ranking-25-best-league-history. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.