IF YOU ASK anyone in Indiana how they would describe a Hoosier, you’ll probably get several descriptors.
To name a few: hardworking, resilient, and loyal.
And so, it’s fitting that any of those words could be used to describe Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell.
Mitchell, who’s spent the entirety of her career in Indiana, is heading into her eighth season with the Fever. While the state of the franchise is bright and bountiful for future victories, it was anything but during the formative years of her career.
From Mitchell’s rookie season in 2018 until 2022, the Fever went a total of 36-122.
“Nobody saved me,” Mitchell says of the years when Indiana struggled. “The actions speak for [themselves]. I was in one of those situations where I was trying to figure it out on my own. Took the L’s on my own. I didn’t have cameras, nobody following me. For some people it’s like, ‘Damn, it’s the bottom of the barrel,’ but for me, it made me who I am. I was going to be prepared for any moment that came my way.”
In a sports world where athletes and coaches moving to new destinations is commonplace, Mitchell stuck it out through the turbulent times of the franchise. For four seasons, the Fever didn’t finish in double-figure wins, and there were three consecutive years when they finished no better than six wins.
Through those years, however, Mitchell was ever the consistent scorer, leading the team in points per game in every season but her rookie campaign.
But scoring has always been in Mitchell’s DNA after a high school career at Princeton in Sharonville, Ohio. She averaged 26.1 PPG as a senior before finishing at Ohio State University as fourth all-time in Division I scoring with 3,402 points.
It seems it was only recently that the novice fans took notice of her scoring capability.
“I’ve always been that player. I can’t convince the world, but as long as I can keep convincing myself as to why I’m playing, why I’m good, then that’s good with me. That’s all the motivation I’ve ever needed,” she says.
In 2023 and 2024, Mitchell was named to consecutive WNBA All-Star teams while making the playoffs for the first time in her career last season, when she and Caitlin Clark led the team in scoring with 19.2 PPG each.
But her accolades and presence continue off the court, too, as when she was awarded the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award in 2023, an achievement bestowed to a WNBA player who holds characteristics of a leader in the community in which they work or live.
Her ability to lead comes in spades, too. After being chosen with the second overall draft pick in 2018, she was able to help fellow lottery picks and teammates Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark, as well as others.
“I think putting it into perspective of the timing in which you’re drafted compared to being a pro, you go straight from [becoming] a pro to trying to win games. The expectations can get to you, but mentally, my job with Caitlin and AB, NaLyssa Smith, and Queen Egbo when they were here, Lexie Hull now—you have to treat everyone the same to go through the process to learn how to be a pro,” she says.
Mitchell notes the need for top draft picks to approach their rookie season with grace.
“With that time, you have to give yourself some fliers sometime and say, ‘I just came from college, I’m drafted, let me give myself some grace.’ It’s about taking time and recognizing where you are, but I think that transition is not what a lot of people talk about,” she says.
Now Mitchell marches forward into a 2025 season with a squad that is ripe with championship pedigree and all-WNBA talent. The Indiana Fever will suit up three former WNBA champions and five former WNBA All-Stars on its roster.
Regardless of how this season or future campaigns end up, it’s clear the loyalty Mitchell has shown Indiana puts her among Fever greats.
“It’s a dope experience, especially coming from an organization like the Fever,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to rep anybody else as far as the new people that come in and being the pillar of that down the line. It’s worth it. People like Tamika Catchings did an unbelievable job of pouring into me, so now it’s only right that I do the same thing moving forward.”
