INDIANAPOLIS — Odyssey Sims is no stranger to a new locker room. The veteran guard has joined a new team in August in three of the last four seasons and after training camp in the fourth, she was forced to adapt to a different set of teammates and plays in a hurry.
Throughout her tour of the WNBA, having to learn on the fly and still find a way to succeed, this Indiana Fever team stands apart.
Advertisement
“This is the first time I’ve been a part of a team with so much, they dealt with a lot,” Sims said. “I’m blessed to be a part of this group. This group is amazing, from the coaching staff to the top all the way to the bottom. My teammates are amazing. Everyone pours into each other, it’s always positivity.”
That ethos that developed at the start of the year and sustained through all of the iterations of the Fever’s roster has carried Indiana to within one win of the WNBA Finals. After Sunday’s 90-83 Game 4 victory to even the semifinals series against the second-seeded Aces, the sixth-seeded Fever will head to Las Vegas to try to do what few outside of the organization expected when their injuries piled up this season and even their playoff hopes temporarily faded.
But that positivity that hasn’t allowed them to collapse in the face of adversity has existed since the start of the season. Assistant coach Briann January said the team buses were noisy all the time. The players constantly wanted to hang out outside of games and practices, be it team dinners or excursions, like to Top Golf. They genuinely cared for one another and enjoyed each other’s company.
Nevertheless, the strength of that bond has been tested, and at every instance, the Fever’s chemistry has passed. In their lowest moments, they find a way to power through and clear another hurdle. That’s as evident as ever in the playoffs, but it started earlier in the season.
Advertisement
Coach Stephanie White took a couple games of personal leave in June for a loss in her family. That became a moment when Mitchell and White developed a deeper connection. White had spoken with Mitchell at length over the offseason after becoming the Indiana head coach to get to know her star player off the court; part of that experience involved helping Mitchell process the mourning of her father, who had died unexpectedly before the 2024 season.
That connection laid the groundwork for Mitchell to pour into White in her time of need. They have had to rely on one another more than ever on the court as Mitchell carries a larger burden for the Fever, and they trust one another implicitly because of their relationship outside of basketball.
“When you want to have a conversation and get to know people for who they are, and not just the basketball part. I gain a different respect for that, and that’s me and Steph’s relationship now,” Mitchell said.
Around the same time in June, DeWanna Bonner, one of the prize acquisitions of Indiana’s free agency, decided that she and the Fever weren’t a good fit. The players didn’t dwell on Bonner leaving the team, instead committing wholly to Aari McDonald, who joined the Fever as Bonner’s replacement.
Advertisement
Then, the injuries started to mount. First came star guard Caitlin Clark, who played her last game on July 15. Even though she wasn’t ruled out for the season until Sept. 4, her injury was a gut punch in the moment. There were tears in the locker room that night, not just the ones that Clark shed on the court.
Clark was essential to Indiana’s pace and her size was crucial to their switching defense early in the season. McDonald came in and was able to produce, but the stylistic difference between her and Clark required a reimagination of the Fever’s execution.
“We, as coaches, had to regroup,” assistant coach Austin Kelly said. “Some things didn’t work as we were trying to figure it out. And they kept the faith in us, the players did, and the locker room has just been really good.”
The Fever reeled off five wins in a row after the All-Star break, a streak that included victories over Las Vegas and Phoenix. They were starting to find their stride without Clark when the next calamity hit: a pair of season-ending injuries to McDonald and Sydney Colson on the same night. There were tears in the locker room that night, too.
Advertisement
Team president Kelly Krauskopf immediately started to “track down” Sims that night for backcourt reinforcements, getting her a flight from Dallas to Indiana the next day. Sophie Cunningham helped take the lead to navigate Indiana through its heartbreak. She actively worked to keep morale high and also assumed a ballhandling role in the starting lineup with all of the Fever’s point guards unavailable.
“Sophie’s always like that,” Kelly said. “She’s a very vocal leader. She’s somebody who was really great at bringing everybody together.”
That made the next hit even more devastating, as Cunningham went down 10 days later in the first half against Connecticut in a game the Fever trailed by 19 at halftime. Unlike the previous injuries, Indiana hadn’t yet figured out its new rotation, and the season felt perilously close to slipping away.
White challenged the players at halftime. No matter what they had been through, now was the time to get going. Now was the time to prove that they still had the connection and grit that defined their group before the injuries.
Advertisement
“That was a turning point, because that was a resilient moment,” Mitchell said. “We could have given up and we didn’t.”
Indiana certainly could have given up when it was down 1-0 to Atlanta in the first round or trailing by five points with 2 1/2 minutes to play on the road in an elimination game. They could have given up in Game 1 against the Aces when the home team erased an early lead, or even heading into Sunday’s Game 4 after Las Vegas had suffocated the Fever’s offense for two straight games.
But that isn’t the team Indiana believes itself to be. The Fever rostered a franchise-record 18 players in 2025, and no matter who came into the locker room, they found a way to bring out the best in them.
Krauskopf and general manager Amber Cox stayed on the phones, adding more pieces for the stretch run. Aerial Powers was in Turkey and had signed a deal with another team, but she was drawn by the allure of playing in Indiana. Shey Peddy joined the party, too.
Advertisement
The injured players stayed as connected as possible to the rest of the group, timing their rehab appointments so that they could be out on the court during practices, uplifting their teammates and sharing their insights.
“Syd does her rehab while we’re in film and then is on her ACL, I don’t know how many weeks out, standing on our baseline, talking to people when they’re subbing out,” January said. “As much as we like to do our part and we encourage them to be a part of it, that’s on them. It’s a lot going through major surgeries, like all of them did. It’s a lot. It’s hard, physically. It’s hard, mentally, emotionally, because you aren’t able to be out there. For them to do that, it just shows you the type of people they are.”
The throughline of the Fever’s season has been the “we over me,” “standard over feeling” mottos. They play for each other, and they play to a championship standard they set at the start of the year. Feelings are fleeting, but their level cannot be.
“Whether they didn’t play, whether they’re on the team for the past two weeks, everyone is coming in and contributing and impacting the game the best way that they can,” guard Lexie Hull said. “Steph always says no one needs to do anything more than what they normally do. No one needs to play outside of themselves, and everyone has a way to impact the game, and I think that’s what’s been really, really cool to see.”
Advertisement
January was part of a 2012 title team in Indiana that had its fair share of injuries, and she sees the echoes of that group today.
But this is the Fever’s own journey in 2025. They are the ones who have rallied when no one would have blamed them for calling it quits. They are the ones who grieved and put themselves back together, who adapted, and who persisted.
“For the ones that’s been here through thick and thin to not back down, to make sure that everybody that comes in (tries) to jell, put everybody in positions to be their best. It means a lot,” Sims said.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Advertisement
Indiana Fever, WNBA
2025 The Athletic Media Company
