The Fever were rebuilding around a young core that started when they drafted Lexie Hull in 2022, then Aliyah Boston in 2023, and Caitlin Clark in 2024.
Mitchell had been in Indiana since 2018, drafted out of Ohio State with the No. 2 overall pick, and she had experienced all the depths the franchise was trying to climb out of — from the years when cracking six wins was a struggle, to the years the team spent playing at the state fairgrounds.
Mitchell was exploring her options as a free agent, but White wanted her to know how much she valued her.
“We talked for hours and hours on WhatsApp,” Mitchell said. “She made it a priority to kind of be present in my process.”
More than anything, Mitchell wanted a coach that believed in her. She needed it at that moment more than any other because she was still grieving the loss of her father, Mark Mitchell, who died suddenly in March 2024. Her father had been her coach and confidant from childhood through college and, during her WNBA career, he was always her first call after games.
White, who has had to navigate family crises over the past year while also leading WNBA teams, understood.
The bond that Mitchell and White built allowed Mitchell to emerge as an MVP finalist this season. And it’s not only kept the Fever afloat in a turbulent season, but has them up, 1-0, on the Las Vegas Aces in the second round of the playoffs after pulling off a 89-73 upset Sunday in Game 1.
Mitchell scored a career-playoff-high 34 points on 12-of-23 shooting, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range.
“That’s the growth, that’s the experience,” she said. “That’s the being at the bottom of the barrel, that’s the being a loser. So I’ve seen it. I know what it looks like.”
Part of what’s allowed Mitchell to thrive this season is White giving her, and everyone on the roster, the freedom to be themselves on and off the court.
“Steph always cries on camera, but I cry off camera because I really never truly had the company, the culture, the organization that I’ve been surrounded by the last couple years,” Mitchell said. “It’s big for us because I’ve never had that, I’ve never seen it.
“So to feel valued, to feel like somebody’s pouring into me, seeks out my value, it’s everything to me because I’m a loyal person and my loyalty is in my character. So to know people believe in me, y’all gotta know what that feels like because for a long time nobody did. My dad was the only one. So when you lose somebody and then you find somebody that can replace that, it’s big for me.”
For a Fever team that’s dealt with one loss after another this season, Mitchell’s value has been immeasurable. Injuries decimated Indiana’s roster. Between Clark (26 games), Sydney Colson (12), Aari McDonald (12), Sophie Cunningham (11), and Chloe Bibby (7), the Fever lost 68 player games to injury. Teams such as the Dallas Wings and Phoenix Mercury had to rotate more bodies, but the only team with more games lost to injury was the Chicago Sky.
“We even lost a coaching staff member to an Achilles’,” Mitchell said, referring to player development coach Keith Porter, who suffered his injury this month.
But the Fever clawed to finish 24-20 and earn the sixth seed.
“I do know basketball, and I can say that where we started and where we are, I don’t know if anyone thought we would be here,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell averaged a career-high 20.2 points per game, carrying the load with so many bodies on the shelf.
“There’ve been multiple times this season where she’s put us on her back and she’s carried us,” White said. “And as we’ve gone through that, she’s continued to lead and pour into everybody else.”
While White has been in this position before, within arm’s reach of the WNBA Finals just a year ago, this is new territory for Mitchell.
“I think everything I’ve been through got me here,” Mitchell said. “I think that my journey and the way it happened was positioned for me. And I believe that everything that I’ve been through was big for me because I can enjoy this moment a little bit more.”