Indiana Fever Fans Not Happy With Their 2026 WNBA Draft
The Indiana Fever angered a certain portion of their fan base with their first-round selection in the 2026 WNBA Draft.
Indiana bolstered its backcourt on Monday night by drafting South Carolina star Raven Johnson. She earned All-America honors and SEC Defensive Player of the Year during her final season of college basketball, averaging 9.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.5 steals per game.
"You're talking about a team that could possibly win the championship," Johnson said when asked about joining the Fever. "I think it's crazy. They have a lot of vets I could learn from and they're winners. Everybody on that team likes to win. I think that's what makes that team special. So to go to a program like that, that has the same mentality as me of winning is phenomenal."
Even though Johnson had an impressive run at South Carolina, she's not receiving a ton of love from Fever fans this Tuesday. That's because they're worried she won't be a good fit alongside Caitlin Clark.
"You have one shot to change the Fever fan's collective minds," one fan said. "Don't screw it up! The first meeting with CC must be captured on video as much as possible!"
"The empath in me feels sorry for her. But, the pragmatist in me says she brought this on herself," a second fan wrote. "She could have mentioned any adversity but she chose to rehash and drag Caitlin."
"I'm going clean slate with Raven Johnson and see how it goes," a social media user added. "Maybe it was Dawn Staleys system that caused really poor shooting from and KM / CC can get her functional on O. Not what I saw as the biggest need but that's sports."
"You have to be kidding me!? This is the same woman who just a couple weeks ago, trashed the Fever fans and now they picked her from the draft?" another fan wrote.
Caitlin and Raven have some history.
During the Final Four of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, Clark waved off Johnson when she was wide-open from the 3-point line. That moment led to Johnson receiving a lot of backlash on social media.
"That's one reason why I hate the internet now. I got bashed, I got bullied. I got called all these things that I wasn't," Johnson said. "I wanted to quit basketball at that time and go in this little bubble of isolation and just be by myself. I just leaned on God, I had some wonderful teammates and they helped me find that light and it put some much fuel to the fire for me to go back for the next year and we went undefeated and met that team again and we beat them."
It'll be interesting to see if Clark and Johnson can successfully make the transition from rivals to teammates.
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This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 9:49 AM.