Fever's Place in 'Most Polite' WNBA Reddit Fan Study Counters Narrative
A recent study from ActionNetwork.com analyzed over 160,000 comments from the subreddits of all 15 WNBA fandoms and found that the Indiana Fever had the league's fourth-most-polite fan base, as only 1.43% of comments from Fever fans analyzed contained swear words.
Subreddits are online community networks from Reddit, which is essentially an online forum for users to discuss and interact with each other about countless hobbies, shared interests, and other news. Reddit is the world's sixth most-visited website. So while this study isn't definitive by any means, it provides about as good of an indication as one could hope for.
Ever since the Fever drafted Caitlin Clark in 2024 (which caused Clark's massive individual fan base to become fans of the franchise), Indiana's fandom has gotten a reputation for being among the most hostile, especially when it comes to how they interact with WNBA players.
This recently became a topic of discussion after Chelsea Gray shared a racist message she received from a fan. While Gray didn't indicate that this was a Fever fan specifically, she did note that the message came after the Aces played the Fever, which caused some on social media to speculate that it was a Fever fan, if only to fit the narrative about this fan base. Further investigation into the perpetrator indicated his actions may have been dictated by sports gambling more than anything.
Of course, only so much can be gleaned from analyzing social media profanity. But the Fever's place in this study not only suggests that stereotypical Midwestern hospitality and manners might be alive and well, but that the narrative surrounding this fan base — especially through social media — isn't all it's made out to be.
Fever Fans Being Polite Isn't Keeping Them From Negativity, According to the Study
While the Fever were the league's fourth-most polite fan base, according to this Reddit study, they were also the fifth most negative fandom.
The study came to this conclusion by ranking the percentage of comments analyzed that had a negative sentiment, and 23.07% of comments among Fever fans did so.
For what it's worth, the most negative fan base in the study were the Chicago Sky (27.95%), then the Connecticut Sun (24.64%), then the Los Angeles Sparks (24.17%), then the Phoenix Mercury (23.44%). All four of these teams have disappointed relative to their expectations heading into the 2026 season, which might explain their place here.
There's no question that Fever fans can get negative on social media, especially when it regards Caitlin Clark. Therefore, seeing them at this place doesn't come as a surprise.
That being said, the fan base deserves credit for keeping their negative sentiment free of swearing.
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Grant Young covers women’s basketball for Women’s Fastbreak and Indiana Fever On SI. His coverage centers on league trends and the growth of women’s basketball, both on and off the court. He also creates digital content focused on the sport’s biggest moments and personalities.
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