Photo by Clay Maxfield
Dear Caitlin,
Hey, superstar! It’s us, your Indiana Fever fandom. We hope you’re enjoying the offseason. You deserve some downtime. You came here with the highest expectations possible for an athlete on your shoulders and somehow managed to exceed them.
You played every game. You broke the records. You won the awards. You packed the arenas. You changed the sport. You changed Indianapolis. You did the work, took the hits, and stayed above the fray as much as you could, on and off the court. You paid your dues with bruises and a black eye. Even a ruptured eardrum.
Before the season, some WBNA stars predicted that you would be overwhelmed as a rookie. Nope—in fact, we usually forgot you were a rookie (except when those technicals piled up). You always deflected media attention and pointed to the league as the show. You praised the ballers who came before you and the ones setting the screens for your logo 3s. Your teammates matched your intensity buzzer to buzzer. We all became massive Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston, and Lexie Hull fans. Fever and WNBA fans. By the playoffs, thousands more appreciated Chelsea Gray’s passing, and Napheesa Collier’s domination in the paint.
Photos by Clay Maxfield
While the media talked about Clarkenomics, we enjoyed meeting people downtown who came to see you play—like three generations of Iowan women, the grandmother clutching her Caitlin Crunch Time cereal box. What a party every Fever game was! Seeing Simone Biles and David Letterman in the stands. That explosion in Gainbridge whenever you hit the first 3 of the game.
Even in an Olympics year, you were the biggest sports story of 2024. But we can also tell that first and foremost, you’re a hardworking, down-to-earth Midwesterner who purely loves basketball. In a Fever jersey, that makes you one of us.
Until spring tip,
Indianapolis Monthly
