SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MAY 22: Kelsey Mitchell #0, Caitlin Clark #22 and Aliyah Boston #7 of the Indiana Fever react against the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena on May 22, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

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INDIANAPOLIS – On April 11, the Indiana Fever announced that they had re-signed star guard Kelsey Mitchell to a one-year contract. That alone was not news – star teammate Caitlin Clark called keeping Mitchell a priority, and the Fever sent a core qualifying offer to Mitchell. That offer made it impossible for her to negotiate with other teams. Her return was expected.

Yet her signing was significant in that it was a supermax contract, meaning for the first time ever a Fever player was set to make $1 million in one season. Mitchell’s deal will pay her 20% of the WNBA’s new salary cap, which is set at $7 million after the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement was agreed to last month.

“For nearly a decade, Kelsey has been a foundational piece of the Indiana Fever and securing her return was our highest priority. Kelsey Mitchell is among the top of a long list of great athletes who have elevated not only our city and franchise, but their sport as a whole. She further cemented her legacy last season, and we hope her return underscores how much she is valued by our entire organization,” Fever general manager Amber Cox said in a press release.

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.