How Indiana Fever Gave Out Two Historic Contracts In One Week

Cox mentioned that Mitchell has been with Indiana for nearly a decade, and the salary comparison across those seasons is telling. During Mitchell’s first eight years with the Fever, she made about $1.12 million in total. In her ninth season alone, the three-time All-Star will make $1.4 million.

That growth is significant, and a big deal for the franchise. The Fever’s President of Basketball Operations is Kelly Krauskopf – she previously held the GM title for the franchise and assumed the role from 2000 to 2017. She’s seen the salary growth of players up close and got to send out the first seven-figure contract in Indiana’s history.

“I can’t say enough great things about Kelsey,” Cox said at the team’s media day last week. “She deserves it.”

Mitchell said that it was humbling for her to ink such a big contract and was grateful to even be able to sign it. She did see what the market had to offer in free agency but chose to sign with the Fever anyway – and leaving would have been challenging after the core process. “For all the right reasons, I knew the Fever was the priority,” Mitchell said.

The 2025 All-WNBA team member has played in other leagues throughout her career during WNBA offseasons, including stops in other continents. She expects that to change now.

“It would have to be a drastic, unique situation for me to go back overseas,” Mitchell said. She played in the United States-based three-on-three league Unrivaled during the most recent offseason and would do so again. “Yeah, for sure. That was good basketball and it was in the United States, so I can’t really complain,” she said.

Mitchell is still committed to Project B, a new startup overseas league she signed with prior to the existence of the new CBA. That may just be Mitchell’s last time leaving North America for basketball after her supermax agreement with the Fever.

Who else received a big contract from the Indiana Fever?

She also wasn’t the only Fever player to sign a contract worth seven figures. Star center Aliyah Boston did so too after receiving the WNBA’s first-ever contract extension via the newly-created Exceptional Performance on Initial Contract (EPIC) provision on April 17.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - JUNE 16: Kelsey Mitchell #0 and Aliyah Boston #7 of the Indiana Fever react to a foul by the Chicago Sky during the second half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on June 16, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

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Players on their rookie contracts all received pay bumps, but none were as big as Boston’s. Because the three-year pro was named to second-team All-WNBA last season, she was eligible for the EPIC extension, one that permitted the Fever to give her a raise in 2026, then a long-term extension that runs beyond the upcoming campaign.

In total, Boston’s new deal projects to be worth just under $6.3 million, the specific numbers can’t be known until the salary cap number is determined for future seasons. In order to reach such a high salary over a three-year extension, the Fever and Boston agreed to a supermax deal in 2027 through 2029, and the young center also had her 2026 salary bumped up from $574,612 to $1 million.

“The EPIC piece was a new one that obviously impacts us right out of the gate that we had to adjust to,” Cox said of how the new CBA changed things for the Fever. It allowed the team to have a pair of players making $1 million or more this season.

There will be 31 such players in the entire league this season. Boston felt blessed by the new contract and detailed that right after the new CBA was finalized, her agent got to work on negotiations with the Fever.

“It’s just baffling hearing those numbers. It’s crazy. I’m so thankful that this league is where we are right now,” Fever head coach Stephanie White, a former WNBA player herself, said of the big contracts handed out by the franchise.

The Fever aren’t the only team with multiple players making seven figures. But they are one of just three teams to roster a supermax player this season, and they’re the only team that signed a player using the EPIC provision. It was a historic offseason for the WNBA, and the Fever were at the center of it all.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com