There is no one who has been waiting for this Indiana Fever playoff berth like Kelsey Mitchell.
When the Fever take the floor in the first round on Sunday, it will be their first postseason game in eight years, ending the longest such drought in the WNBA. That period saw the organization change front offices and coaches and rebuilding strategies. Losses piled up. People moved on. Mitchell stayed. Drafted by Indiana with the second pick in 2018, she chose to stick with the franchise and eventually signed a multiyear extension, making her the longest tenured member of this roster by far. The guard spent a long time hoping to play in late September with the Fever. She now will finally experience it.
Earlier this week, 28-year-old Mitchell tried to imagine the lights and spectacle of the postseason. “I’ll be like a kid in a candy store, probably,” she grinned. But the moment will also be heavy for her. She knows where her heart will be when she takes the floor. This season has been the most productive of her career, but it has been the hardest, too.
“I’ve got a legacy to uphold,” Mitchell continued as she discussed her first playoff appearance. “And that’s my dad.”
Her season has been shaped by grief. Mitchell’s father, Mark, died suddenly in March at the age of 56. The pair had always been close: He was instrumental in developing her love for basketball. After years as a decorated high school coach, Mark became a staff assistant at Ohio State, where he coached both of his daughters. (If some teenagers might chafe at spending that many hours with their father while in college, Mitchell never did.) She continued to lean on him as a basketball resource and sounding board years into her professional career. His death this spring left her reeling. And in the six months since, Mitchell has played the best basketball of her career, framed and fueled by that loss.
“She’s showing the world that this didn’t break her,” says Fever teammate Erica Wheeler. “Easily, she could have broken down. But right now, she’s making her dad proud, and she’s killing it.”
Mitchell is frank when asked what basketball meant to her this summer: “Oh, it saved my life,” she says. It would have been impossible for her to play without thinking of her dad. But she found a way to compartmentalize as the days without him became weeks that became months. She imagined physically leaving her feelings on the bench each day. “I was able to go and use the floor, take everything it brought to me, and kind of just go back to my roots,” Mitchell says. “I let the game take me there.” It brought her to a new level of play.
Named an All-Star this season for the second time in her career, Mitchell finished the regular season averaging 19.2 points on a true shooting percentage of 58.8%. She was especially hot down the stretch. Once the WNBA returned from its Olympic break, she was among the most consistent, efficient shooters in the league. In 12 of the first 13 games after the break, Mitchell scored 20 or more points, helping to clinch a playoff spot and turn the season around for the Fever. Indiana went 9–4 during that stretch.
It helps that she has new talent around her. Count this among the perks of playing alongside a generational player in No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark. The pair developed their chemistry over the course of the season and have grown into one of the most effective backcourts in the game. “Having a high-value PG obviously opens things up in a positive way,” Mitchell says. It’s afforded her opportunities she never had before in Indiana.
Opposing defenses no longer automatically collapse in on Mitchell. She was the singular focal point of this offense for years, but with the addition of Clark, she has more freedom to operate. Mitchell has always played fast—almost bordering on frenetic—and the offense now operates much closer to her ideal pace. Her role has naturally changed this season. But it hasn’t diminished. Mitchell’s usage rate has actually increased this year with a player like Clark able to facilitate and space the floor.
“It’s giving Kelsey a lot of space,” says Fever coach Christie Sides. “She’s such an excellent shooter, she’s knocking those shots down, or she’s taking people off the dribble, and she’s getting to the rim.”
Sides notes that Mitchell’s defense has improved, too. Last season, it was rare to hear the guard talk about defense in the huddle. Now, she helps lead those conversations. “That’s really helped us be able to make this jump,” says Sides. Every aspect of her game has leveled up.
But the season has still been enormously difficult on a personal level. Mitchell has particularly leaned on 33-year-old Wheeler, the oldest member of this roster, and one who can empathize with playing through the pain of losing a parent. Wheeler’s mother died of cancer just before her senior year at Rutgers. The season that followed was a blur. A decade later, Wheeler has watched Mitchell navigate the same brutal situation, and she has done what she can to help.
“She wanted that guidance and ways to kind of cope with it,” Wheeler says. “And I told her there is no way to cope with it.”
One day in early September, Mitchell turned to Wheeler and blurted out: Today is horrible. Wheeler told her all that she could, which is that some days are horrible, with no way out, no chance of making them any less miserable, but sometimes, the next day will be a little better. “If you get through it, if you can fight through today, what do you think you’re going to get tomorrow?” Wheeler told her. Mitchell fought her way through that day, and the next one, and the next.
“The biggest thing is being able to see her get through those days, and still be the great person she is,” Wheeler says.
Now, some three weeks later, Mitchell will take the floor in the playoffs for the first time, ready for a best-of-three series against the Connecticut Sun. Her team is under an unprecedented spotlight, given the intense, constant media circus that follows Clark. The change has been somewhat dizzying for veteran players. But at the center of that chaos has been something remarkable: This season has offered Mitchell peace. She’s grateful for every additional day that she will get to play this fall.
“It’s been a really trying year for me,” Mitchell says. “But I think basketball saved it.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as In a Year Marked by Loss, Fever's Kelsey Mitchell Is Ready for Her Playoff Moment.