Fever Channel Pressure of Expectation, Competition into Training Camp

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WNBA Indiana Fever

Fever Channel Pressure of Expectation, Competition into Training Camp

May 9, 2025 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Indiana Fever News Release


"They want to rip each other's hearts out in practice every single day," coach Stephanie White said of her Indiana Fever team.

White's description of the environment inside Indiana Fever training camp doesn't - at first - seem to describe a life-giving process for a team gearing up for the season, but the Fever are "ripping each other's hearts out" for the sake of competition.

They want to win, plain and simple. But there's nobody else to win against in practice except each other, and when one Fever player competes against another, the whole team gets better.

"It's competitive spirit and it's what competition is all about," White said. "...We've got edgy players, we've got competitive players, and I guarantee you it doesn't matter if we're playing cards or if we're playing basketball. They want to win."

Indiana struts toward its WNBA season opener with a confident swagger, an attitude of resilience and persistence that embodies the team's "Now You Know" campaign. Now you know how one team can captivate a national audience, now you know what Indiana basketball is all about, and now you know that women's sports are packed full of gritty competitors too.

White's Fever team is chomping at the bit to get in between the lines with another team, but right now, all they have is each other.

The Fever roster is one of the deepest in the league this season, and consequently one of the most difficult cuts to make. Every training camp session is a battle - a battle for minutes, a battle for position, or a battle for a seat in the locker room.

"We have a deep roster, and you want that competitive spirit within your team, but at the same time I think we have a great balance of supporting one another," Caitlin Clark said. "But when we get on the court, like, we're battling, we're fighting.

"...There's just a tenacity and a competitive spirit, like we're still competing with each other to earn time and earn minutes...so I think there's that, but also at the same time you want your teammates to do really well...and you can feel that love too."

Competition and grit don't squeeze the love out of Indiana's situation. The pressure-cooker environment of a tough training camp doesn't breed animosity or resentment, but it strengthens the bonds between teammates as they rally for each other while they go toe-to-toe with one another on the hardwood.

Game one of 44 is still a week out, but the compete level of the Fever is already rising to the occasion. And more than just Indiana is watching.

Indiana defeated Brazil's national team 108-44 in a preseason game on Sunday, and still outdrew Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals in terms of TV viewership. That attention speaks to the expectations the world has for the Fever this season, and with that attention comes immense pressure.

"Pressure is a privilege," White said on Thursday. "The reason that we all started in this game was because we love it, we enjoy it. But we're hungry to be our best as individuals, and we're hungry to be our best as a team. So I don't think there's any one person [or] entity that can put more pressure on us than we put on ourselves."

Pressure can make or break teams with lofty aspirations, but the Fever are determined to let it shape them into diamonds. Propelled by the love they share for the game of basketball and a hunger for competition, Indiana closes its preseason slate on Saturday with a matchup against the Atlanta Dream - another game that will certainly draw eye-popping numbers of tuned-in fans.

But Indiana isn't listening to that noise. The Fever are laser-focused on calibrating with one another as they fix their sights on the regular season opener just eight days from Friday.

"We control what's inside our locker room," White said. "We control what's inside our building, what's inside our practices. And every day that is a hunger and a drive and a competitive spirit to be better. We know that we're not going to be a championship contender in May. We have to take it one step at a time.

"We have to stack our days, we have to continue to hold ourselves and each other accountable, we've got to continue to be selfless. We've got to continue to build, and this team is hungry, but so many things have to fall in line. And so we're just going to put one foot in front of the other, and we're just going to continue to get better. And we're going to continue to focus on us and the things that we can control."

Indiana travels to Atlanta for the preseason finale against the Dream on Saturday, May 10 at 3:00 PM ET. The regular season opener will be back in Indianapolis on Saturday, May 17 at 1:00 PM ET as the Fever take on the Chicago Sky.

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