INDIANAPOLIS — In the most successful year of her professional basketball career, Kelsey Mitchell is dealing with her deepest loss.
It isn’t evident on the court, where the guard has helped the Indiana Fever end a seven-season WNBA playoff drought. Mitchell, the WNBA’s No. 2 draft pick in 2018, has played for the Fever throughout their journey back to franchise relevancy.
But the person she credits with building her game, her strength and her fortitude isn’t here. Her father, Mark Mitchell, a longtime high school and college basketball coach, died suddenly in March at age 56.
“That was my best friend, and we did everything together,” Mitchell told ESPN. “We kind of lived through each other on so many levels. He was my father, but we could talk about everything. And it sucks. Man, it sucks. It’s just, you know, you wish you could go back.
“I try to do the best job emotionally to keep myself intact, knowing how much my dad played a role in my life and being grateful for that. … It’s not always easy.”
Making things look easy is a trademark of Mitchell’s game and personality. She does it with each high-arcing lefty 3-pointer, her signature shot. With each slash to the basket and acrobatic finish. With her smiles on the court.
There weren’t a lot of those Sunday as the WNBA playoffs tipped for the Fever, who fell 93-69 in Game 1 of their best-of-three series against the No. 3 seed Connecticut Sun. Mitchell finished with a team-high 21 points but shot 2 of 10 from behind the arc. She and the sixth-seeded Fever will need a better performance Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) to keep their season going.
But in a year of grief and triumph for Mitchell, she knows perseverance.
“She deserves every bit of the [acclaim] she’s getting, and more,” Fever coach Christie Sides said. “She does keep to herself, though, and doesn’t let you know how she’s really feeling. She can be having a really bad day, but I won’t know about it. She’s always going to say she’s OK.”
Mitchell’s even-keel demeanor during this 20-victory season is the same as it was in 2022, when the Fever were a franchise-worst 5-31. That year, former Indiana star Tamika Catchings resigned as general manager, the Fever had an in-season coaching change and they had to play in other arenas because their regular home, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, was being renovated.
Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Aces‘ A’ja Wilson, the player drafted No. 1 in 2018 ahead of Mitchell, praised her and how Mitchell’s play has impacted the Fever.
“I remember our families were together just kicking it at the draft. It’s taken some time for her and Indiana. But seeing someone that stayed on the right track, and now it’s paying off. … I just smile. I’m so happy for her.”
A’ja Wilson on Kelsey Mitchell
“The joy that she plays with, the fun she has with others — it’s contagious,” Wilson said. “I remember our families were together just kicking it at the draft. It’s taken some time for her and Indiana. But seeing someone that stayed on the right track, and now it’s paying off. … I just smile. I’m so happy for her. Even when we were playing in Indiana, I was like, ‘Keep going, dawg!’ This is who she is, and the world is seeing it.”
Mitchell never seemed to pity herself or lament how draft position can result in drastically different experiences. Wilson won her third MVP award Sunday, has captured back-to-back league championships and has been WNBA Finals MVP.
The Aces won 26 regular-season games in 2022; the Fever had won 36 games total in Mitchell’s first five years in the WNBA.
To Mitchell, the greatest compliment is being called a “hooper” — someone who gives the game everything no matter how rocky the circumstances.
“My dad trained me my whole life,” she said. “I’m the blueprint of what he taught. It’s all of me.”
Mark Mitchell played football at Eastern Kentucky, where he met his future wife, Cheryl, who played basketball. Along with her three siblings, they have always been a family “with sports in our DNA,” Kelsey said. She grew up in Cincinnati and loves its vibe, its basketball history.
Mitchell went to Ohio State, where her twin sister, Chelsea, also played and her father was an assistant to coach Kevin McGuff.
“Her dad was a terrific teacher of the game and really good at skill development,” McGuff told ESPN. “She was working on her skills from the time she could walk. It was a beautiful thing to see how much her game grew under his tutelage.”
Mitchell arrived in Indiana when it was amid a lengthy franchise low point. Catchings retired as player in 2016, and Indiana didn’t return to the playoffs until this month. In four of Mitchell’s six seasons before 2024, Indiana won six or fewer games.
The team’s struggles obscured the growth in Mitchell’s game. But last season, under new coach Sides and with No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, Indiana improved to 13 victories and Mitchell was an All-Star. When Caitlin Clark was the No. 1 pick this season, the Fever had the talent needed to be a playoff team.
Clark scored an NCAA-record 3,951 points with 548 3-pointers at Iowa. Mitchell had 3,402 points and 497 3s at Ohio State. They both played for colleges in their home state and were Big Ten Players of the Year three times. And since the end of the Olympic break, Mitchell and Clark have been the most dynamic offensive backcourt in the WNBA; both finished the regular season averaging 19.2 PPG.
“She’s somebody I’ve tried to go up to and listen to and take advice from,” Clark said. “Because she has it, and that’s going to help us build our relationship. We both have each other’s best interest at heart, and it’s been a lot of fun for me to play with her.”
Mitchell will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. Where her future will play out isn’t certain.
But looking back on how this season started — 1-8, with Mitchell dealing with a lingering ankle injury and a broken heart — it’s gratifying that the Fever put the pieces together and while honoring her dad doing what he had loved watching the most: Kelsey balling out.
“She’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever known or played with,” said Fever teammate Katie Lou Samuelson, who also competed with Mitchell in USA Basketball 3×3 events. “She’s such a life force, such a pure soul. We try to be there whenever she needs it. But she’s been able to push through.”
Mitchell visits her mother and family in Cincinnati — about a 110-mile drive from Indianapolis — whenever she can. And she will sometimes insulate herself, watching favorite shows like “Law and Order: SVU.”
Mitchell finds sanctuary on the hardwood and all the connective tissue she will have with her father forever. He’s not here for the sold-out crowds this season, the long-awaited love raining down on the Fever again. But Mitchell said she is certain he knows it’s happening.
“When I do have sadder moments, I live in them and don’t try to run away from them. Because it’s healthy to get those emotions out, too,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be over it; the loss will always be with me. But my dad will always be with me, too.”
