Derek Schultz: Learning as they go

I received a disgruntled text message from my father over the weekend.

Usually, the traffic on his way to the post office—he’s 73 years old and still mails checks to pay bills—and the roller coaster that is Indiana’s weather patterns are the subjects of his ire. Same for just about anything involving the Colts, so the curmudgeonly tone isn’t what surprised me. What instead surprised me about this particular text message was the subject: the Indiana Fever.

My dad was venting his frustration over the Fever’s 36-point loss to the New York Liberty on Saturday night.

He is now invested in the Fever, thanks in large part to the hype surrounding Caitlin Clark, joining many who might be giving the WNBA product a legitimate chance for the first time in their sports-fan lives.

Attendance and viewership surrounding the league continue to explode. According to David Rumsey of Front Office Sports, six different networks have already set all-time records for the most-watched WNBA games on their platforms, including games that showcased the Fever on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC and NBA TV this season. Each of Indiana’s first three games this season drew over 1.5 million viewers, and Pat Boylan, the play-by-play voice of the Fever, pointed out that the nine most-attended WNBA games thus far have all featured Indiana.

The league’s ratings had already been ticking upward over the past few seasons, but this avalanche of attention is brand-new territory for the Fever, who have had to adjust accordingly. Barely six weeks since drafting Clark and not even a dozen games into this season, they are still building the plane as it flies, trying to create a worthwhile product and acclimate their new star, all while under an unprecedented amount of scrutiny from first-time fans and national pundits.

On the court, you can see how far they still have to go before becoming a contending team again. A franchise coming off back-to-back No. 1 overall picks has mostly shown everyone why they earned that dubious distinction, limping off to a 2-9 start. In the Fever’s defense, that’s come after a harrowing and frantic scheduling stretch that has included 11 games in 20 days, the most for any team since the 2007 season.

Knowing the commodity it had in Clark, the league has understandably thrust her into the national spotlight as often as possible, placing the Fever in high-profile matchups on high-profile networks. That has made life tough on a young Indiana squad, learning as it goes while having to deal with league heavyweights like New York (three times) and undefeated Connecticut (twice), plus a showdown with defending champion Las Vegas, all in the season’s opening month.

The Fever defense is a work in progress—and that’s probably being kind—giving up a league-worst 90 points per contest and turning in a 111.8 defensive rating (for those who don’t know, the higher the number goes, the worse it is), while allowing opponents to shoot 46.9% from the field. Clark, despite her WNBA Rookie of the Month accolades, has had her own learning curve transitioning from college to the pros, turning in solid scoring numbers (team-high 15.6 points per game) to go along with substandard shooting percentages (35.4%/29.7% FG/3PT) and a league-high 5.4 turnovers per game.

Besides just the basketball aspect of it all, this newfound spotlight has come with other challenges for Indiana to navigate, especially when it comes to Clark. The attention she’s generated has helped the Fever, the WNBA, partner networks and its sponsors, but it has also created a sizable amount of animosity from opposing fans and players alike, placing a target on both the Fever franchise and its polarizing phenom.

Last weekend, we saw one of the ugly reprecussions of that negativity, with Chicago’s Chennedy Carter taking a cheap shot at Clark late in Indiana’s win over the Sky, the Fever’s first home victory of the season.

The incident, which was correctly upgraded to a Flagrant 1 after the fact, led to a social media firestorm nationally, both from those condemning it and those who felt like it should be an expected part of a professional baptism for any college star.

A major drawback to Clark’s considerable fame is that it now allows someone like Carter—who is on her third team in four seasons and previously existed in near anonymity in non-WNBA circles—lift her own profile at Clark’s expense. If you take a shot at the new face of women’s basketball, you can become a household name! Perhaps the most disappointing part of the Carter-Clark incident, though, was the reaction.

A blatant, non-basketball act was whistled as a common foul, which was never adjusted by the officials on the court, even after a review. The Fever themselves didn’t seem to react properly in the moment, either—never confronting Carter, who was congratulated for her actions by Angel Reese on the Chicago bench.

That’s not to say Aliyah Boston or Grace Berger needs to return the hip-check favor, head coach Christie Sides needs to throw a chair, or any over-the-top retort from Indiana needs to take place, but that incident deserved more than a shrug of the shoulders.

Clark is a flamboyant presence and tough competitor, who is more than capable of taking the trash talk she freely dishes out. She’ll meet fierce competition every night from a talent-laden league known for its physicality and intensity. That is to be expected. But if players like Carter can cheap shot at will with near impunity, while being cheered on by their teammates, that opens the door for more egregious incidents and paints the Fever as an entity that can be easily smothered. A clear line in the sand needs to be drawn over what is acceptable behavior and what is not, and that line can’t be drawn by the referees or the league; it’s up to the Fever.

Sides did take the WNBA officials to task, labeling some of what Clark has had to endure as “unacceptable,” while General Manager Lin Dunn claimed on X that the league needed to “clean up the crap,” but hopefully this incident will be a learning experience for the young Fever, in a season full of them.

All of that said, the attention surrounding the Fever right now is ultimately a good thing. We have seen positive, seismic shifts occur in real time across the women’s basketball landscape these past few months, and those will continue. Indiana has already surpassed its 2023 season total for attendance, fans are regularly conversing about their games on social media platforms, and it is a common occurrence to spot a Caitlin Clark jersey when out and about in Indianapolis.

The franchise will benefit from the attention (even the occasional complaints from my dad), but every action the Fever take both on and off the court is now under the microscope for the first time. This is undoubtedly an exciting inaugural season for Clark and the Fever, but dealing with growing pains, criticisms, cheap shots and an unforgiving spotlight is not going to make it an easy one.•

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From Peyton Manning’s peak with the Colts to the Pacers’ most recent roster makeover, Schultz has talked about it all as a sports personality in Indianapolis for more than 15 years. Besides his written work with IBJ, he’s active in podcasting and show hosting. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @Schultz975.