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WNBA Disrespects Caitlin Clark With Preseason Indiana Fever Decision

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Paolo Songco | Last updated May 5, 2025 8:45 PM ET

Things continue to heat up as the start of the new WNBA season draws closer. At this point, the new campaign tips off in just a couple of weeks' time, which is why fans are getting more and more excited with each passing day.

To further stoke the flame, the WNBA released its official 2025 Power Rankings on Monday. The preseason edition of the rankings, unsurprisingly, has the defending champions New York Liberty sitting atop the list as the No. 1 team in the league.

The WNBA, however, showed some disrespect toward Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever by ranking them way below the top spot. In fact, the league believes that Indiana enters the new season as only the fifth-best team in the WNBA, behind the Liberty, the Minnesota Lynx, the Las Vegas Aces and the Seattle Storm, respectively.

The analysis pointed out how the Fever successfully built around Clark during the offseason by adding veteran experience into their lineup in DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard. The hiring of new head coach Stephanie White was also highlighted, as was the re-signing of Kelsey Mitchell in free agency.

Be that as it may, the WNBA still believes that there are at least four other teams that are going to be better than the Fever in 2025. According to the power rankings, "How quickly the new pieces and new coach mesh with the existing talent, particularly the foundational duo of Clark and Boston, will determine this team’s ceiling."

The silver lining here is that this is just the preseason ranking. This could change quickly if Clark and Co. are able to start the season strong.

Perhaps more importantly, though, this could serve as motivation for Clark and the Fever to prove their doubters wrong. Again.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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