Something weird is going on with Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.
Clark missed much of the 2025 WNBA campaign due to injury concerns. In spite of her prolonged absence, the WNBA still did extremely well in ratings as the overall rise of women’s basketball continues. But Caitlin Clark is still the biggest draw in the league and one of the biggest draws in sports by far.
Ahead of the 2026 season, the excitement over Clark’s return to the Fever was huge. And when she has taken the floor this season, she has excelled scoring at least 20 points in every game and averaging almost 10 assists.
But Clark was mysteriously absent from Indiana’s game on Wednesday night against the Portland Fire. What makes it most concerning is that Clark was not listed on the injury report the day before. It was only revealed just a couple hours before tip time as a huge disappointment to fans in attendance who were planning on seeing the generational star.
The mixed signals and apparent obfuscation coming from the Fever is concerning for not just Clark and her status, but for the league as a whole.
Fever beat reporter Scott Agness was told it was injury management related.
Fever head coach and ESPN analyst Stephanie White said the Fever expected her to play, but had a sore back. She dismissed concerns that the team could be fined over Clark missing the game without being listed on the official injury report and not updating it.
It’s a very strange situation. And it comes a year after Clark’s status was shrouded in secrecy for much of last season before she was ultimately ruled out for the entire year.
And Rachel DeMita has seen enough.
The WNBA commentator posted a video on her YouTube page almost immediately after the Fever shared that Clark would be missing the game and calling out the franchise for mishandling their superstar. And she was very bothered by the fact that the Fever did not announce Clark’s absence until just before doors opened for the game.
“If the Indiana Fever were an NBA team, they would be fined into oblivion with the way they report injuries, not only this season but also last season,” DeMita said.
“This is just crazy. There are people walking into this arena who aren’t on Twitter, who aren’t on whatever, hoping to see Cailtin Clark. There are people probably traveling in from other states, just like they did last year when she was listed day-to-day for so long when they knew she was not day-to-day, they knew she wasn’t coming back.”
DeMita then took it a step further by saying that she thinks it would be best for her to leave the Indiana Fever because of how they have handled her availability.
“It’s starting to get to the point where I don’t know if Caitlin staying with the Indiana Fever makes sense. It’s also something where I think if this were an NBA franchise, this was an NBA organization, people would be fired by now. This is the face of the league, your franchise player, your star player, who’s never had injuries. People would be fired by now. People would be fired expeditiously,” DeMita declared.
It takes on obvious importance for the league as a whole because of Clark’s drawing power and the fact that every single Indiana Fever game is on national television this year. If fans can’t be sure when Clark is playing or not, that’s going to have a huge impact not just on viewership. Surely the WNBA has to step in and put a stop to the Fever’s misdirection plays and insure honesty and integrity for their injury reports. It’s a bad look for the franchise who is already coming into this season without a lot of trust in how they are handling the league’s biggest star.
The worst case scenario for the WNBA is fans feeling like they are being taken advantage of and not being told the truth over Clark’s true status. That is going to destroy not just the Fever fanbase, but the growing WNBA fanbase, in record time.
About Matt Yoder