Why DeWanna Bonner chose Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever: ‘I want to win another championship’

INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark looked at the dwindling shot clock, crossed over to her left and launched a deep 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of DeWanna Bonner.

Air ball.

As Clark fell to the ground, the Indiana Fever superstar let the refs hear it. She felt that Bonner, the Connecticut Sun’s defensive ace, undercut her on her 3-pointer and didn’t give her a space to land. Clark pleaded for a foul call. Bonner vehemently disagreed. The two briefly came together to argue before being separated.

The whole sequence, in Game 2 of the first round of the 2024 WNBA playoffs, lasted just a few seconds of each player mirroring the unyielding fire they saw in the other. Neither competitor could’ve predicted that four months later, after the Sun ended the Fever’s season, they’d call each other teammates.

“It’s (the) playoffs, so emotions are high, tension’s high,” Bonner said Monday. “But I couldn’t be more excited to step on the court with Caitlin.”

In fact, they already have. Clark and Bonner, the Fever’s most notable free-agent signing this offseason, shared an on-court workout Monday in the Fever’s practice gym hours before the space was transformed to include a stage and dozens of chairs for Bonner’s introductory news conference. Clark sat on the first row, cracking a sheepish smile when Bonner addressed their postseason dustup that, knowing how each player is wired, likely won’t be their last quarrel as they join forces.

“That’s exactly what you want. You want your teammates to be just as competitive as you are,” Clark said. “I think training camp’s gonna be really fun.”

Clark, alongside Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell, make up a young core in Indiana that put the league on notice last year. After a 1-8 start, the Fever finished the regular season at 20-20 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

Bonner had a firsthand account of the Fever’s resurgence during the playoffs, and as she weighed her decision this offseason to leave the Sun, who’ve stripped their roster and gone into full-blown rebuild mode, she did so with one thought rising above the rest.

“I want to win another championship,” said Bonner, who won two titles with the Phoenix Mercury. “I want to get back to the finals.”

Bonner believes the Fever, whom she commended as a “hungry group,” gives her the best chance at that, and the fit just made too much sense. New Fever COO and general manager Amber Cox, who worked with Bonner in Phoenix, called her a shoo-in future Hall of Famer. Coach Stephanie White, who previously coached the Fever from 2015 to 2016, coached Bonner for two years in Connecticut before they reunited in Indiana. Even Bonner’s young twin daughters, Cali and Demi, begged their mom to choose Indiana since it’s only a few hours’ drive from where the kids live in Tennessee.

“I knew kind of from the beginning that all of the lines kind of connected to Indiana,” said Bonner, who inked a one-year deal with the Fever. “But it was just like, ‘Should I do this? Should I not?’ But then I called Amber, and I’m like, ‘All right, I’m in,’ and the tears flowed a little bit.”

Aside from the personal connections, Bonner said it was the Fever’s competitiveness that made them more attractive than other teams. Bonner, 37, also recognized that once she put pen to paper, she’d be marrying the twilight of her career with Clark’s unprecedented ascension. During Clark’s historic rookie campaign, she broke the league’s single-game and single-season assists record en route to earning All-WNBA first-team honors. She also became the first rookie to record a triple-double — and did it twice.

That’s the point guard that Bonner, who’s played the most playoff games in WNBA history, wants to chase a championship with in 2025. The same point guard who’s become the face of the sport.

“I don’t feel like I need to push her to be any type of player that she isn’t already,” Bonner said of Clark. “Coming in this league is not easy by any means, especially her path. But to see what she’s already done for this league, and then this organization is kind of insane. You don’t see that a lot in rookies. So, hopefully, like I said, I can make her life a little easier.”

Bonner, who is entering her 16th pro season, is coming off back-to-back All-Star nods and her sixth All-Star selection overall. She averaged 15 points, six rebounds, two assists and 1.2 steals last season as the Sun advanced to the playoff semifinals. White said Bonner correctly described herself as a “puzzle piece” because she can do a bit of everything offensively and defensively to elevate the new-look Fever, who also signed three-time WNBA champ Natasha Howard in free agency and traded for Sophie Cunningham.

Bonner acknowledged that it’ll be a challenge for every player to adjust to new roles, but that’s a burden she welcomes as Indiana tries to take another step forward. Last year, when Bonner and Clark ruffled each other’s feathers in the playoffs, the Fever got sent home. This year, as teammates, their goal is to send everyone else packing.

“The way they came out and fought and almost got the second game (in the first round last year), just shows the type of players that they have and the vision they want to go to,” Bonner said of the Fever. “And me, I want to win. I’m a winner. I feel like that’s kind of been (who) I am my whole career, and I don’t see myself taking a step back. … Just adding to what they have (so) that we can take this thing to a different level.”

Clark shared the same sentiment while assessing Indiana’s noteworthy offseason. The 23-year-old praised the Fever for prioritizing the franchise’s short-term future by bringing in experienced champions like Bonner and Howard, as well as its long-term future with plans to build a $78 million practice facility that could attract other notable free agents down the line.

“I think the next few years are gonna be amazing for this franchise and will continue to be for hopefully 10-plus years,” Clark said. “Hopefully we win a few championships. They’re investing to help us be really good.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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