Kelsey Mitchell is coming full circle at the All-Star game

After playing for years as part of a struggling franchise in front of small crowds, Kelsey Mitchell’s career will come full circle at the All-Star game

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series from SB Nation profiling the 2025 WNBA All-Star teams. Today, let’s get to know Kelsey Mitchell.

Corteva Coliseum is a unique but perfect encapsulation of Indiana.

It’s an arena located in the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis that was known for years as the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, which feels like a joke that’s almost a little too on the nose. It’s an arena that sits just a couple of hundred feet away from the Indiana Farm Bureau Fall Creek Pavilion, which doubles as a swine barn during the state fair each August.

It’s an arena that, while capable of hosting basketball games, hardly feels like a basketball arena.

But in 2022, it hosted half of the Indiana Fever’s home games. Perhaps fittingly, that year represents a low point for the franchise.

The Fever finished the year with a 5-31 record, the fewest wins in franchise history. After beating the Sky on June 19, they did not win again the rest of the year, losing their final 18 games. They ranked last in the league in attendance, bottoming out at just 960 fans in their sixth game of the season.

So while the Indiana Fever may now be the most popular team in the league with Kelsey Mitchell as one of the faces of the franchise, it’s been quite a journey for her to get to this point, and she has a unique perspective on the change and deep gratitude for it.

She’s one of only two holdovers on the current roster that was part of that 2022 season, with Lexie Hull being the other. Whereas Hull was going through a rookie season of being in and out of the rotation and playing just 12.8 minutes per night, Mitchell led the team in minutes, points, assists and steals.

“You had to be here to experience it, and I’m glad a lot of people wasn’t because it made me stronger as a person and as a hooper,” Mitchell said of the lows the franchise went through. “Like that experience I got my first four or five years when nobody came and nobody knew who the Fever was...I’m grateful for the opportunity because it gave me an opportunity to be my best version of myself.”

The best version of Mitchell is exactly what the Fever have gotten. This season, she’s averaging a career-high 19.3 points to go along with 2.8 assists. While it might be a slight statistical step down from last year when she had the most efficient (55.9% effective field goal percentage) scoring season of her career, it is still easily one of the best years of her career.

It’s also a season still plenty worthy of an All-Star nod. For the third straight year, Mitchell was named an All-Star and will be joined by teammates Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston. It’s the second straight season that trio will represent the Fever in the mid-season exhibition as well.

“It’s a big opportunity, personally, for myself and my family, but I think for the organization and where it’s going,” Mitchell said of being named an All-Star. “I think now we know things are big for the city and for the state, and for us to represent, play well enough to be called All-Stars, I think I’m grateful.”

Statistically, this season for Mitchell is also remarkably similar to her 2022 season, but the vibes around the Fever could not be more different.

Now, the number of fans in attendance is measured in the tens of thousands, rather than the hundreds. Gainbridge Fieldhouse is the only place in consideration to host games as they average over 16,000 fans per game.

Their game against the Dallas Wings earlier this season at American Airlines Center drew 20,409 fans. On four different occasions over the last two seasons, the Fever have played in front of at least 20,000 fans, something that’s only happened 10 times in league history, according to Across The Timeline.

Across Mitchell’s first six seasons, the Fever went just 49-149. They ranked in the bottom half of the league in home attendance every one of those years, not even including 2021 when fans weren’t allowed to attend due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They ranked last in home attendance in 2022 and second-to-last in 2023.

Through it all, Mitchell kept improving and kept producing. Even when so few fans showed up, she still did on a nightly basis. And now, she gets to reap the just rewards.

“She’s just such a great person and has a great heart and has been through a lot with this franchise,” Clark said of her fellow All-Star. “[She] has had some really, really tough years as a team here and everybody that knows Kels and has followed her career, she’s always been a bucket getter. She’s always been a tremendous player, and she’s been a huge part of our success over the last couple of years.

“So for her to have this opportunity and to play an All-Star game in front of this type of crowd that we’re going to have…I feel like it’s going to be a little bit full circle for her.”

Indianapolis has shown up for the Fever in a big way over the last two seasons, creating one of the loudest environments in the WNBA.

Now, the city will host the All-Star Game, signaling both how far it has come and where the game is going in the state. Gainbridge Fieldhouse will also be a sold-out arena for the contest, giving many hometown fans a chance to watch their longest-tenured player complete her full-circle moment.

“I’ve had a one hell of a career, and no one could tell me how it was and how it wasn’t,” Mitchell said. “So I can stand on business and say I knew what it was like when nobody was in here and now I know what it’s like when people are. It just goes to show...where the game is going and so you appreciate what it is now.”