Lexie Hull Reveals Why DeWanna Bonner's Sudden Fever Exit Still Stings
Before the Indiana Fever were forced to deal with a staggering amount of season-ending injuries to their roster, the biggest story regarding the 2025 regular season was the saga involving veteran wing DeWanna Bonner.
Indiana signed Bonner in free agency last offseason, which seemed like a shrewd move by the front office to bring in a WNBA legend with a proven championship pedigree and leadership to a young roster. However, things seemingly started going south once Bonner was relegated to Indiana's bench rather than being a starter.
Bonner took a leave of absence from the team shortly after, which ended with her making a trade request in late June. The Fever's front office ultimately waived her, which ended up with Bonner being claimed by the Phoenix Mercury.
During an August 5 episode of the Show Me Something podcast, Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham suggested Bonner left the team without saying anything to the current roster and then added, "But I also think that, like, it’s okay to be professional about it, and like send a text to your teammates.
"Send a text saying and be like, 'Hey, love you guys.' Or you don't even have to say 'Love you guys', just be like, 'Hey, sorry this didn't work out, good luck.' You know what I mean? There’s a way to handle that, I think," Cunningham continued.
Sophie Cunningham spoke on DeWanna Bonner's stint in Indiana.
— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) August 5, 2025
(via @ShowMe_Pod) pic.twitter.com/QMU1zyR008
Lexie Hull Sheds Light on Fever Team Feeling After DeWanna Bonner's Sudden Exit
Cunningham's teammate Lexie Hull expanded on this same sentiment when speaking about Bonner leaving Indiana in an October 27 interview with Glamour Magazine.
“I was super, super, super excited because finally there’s a [player in my position] that I can look up to that has won in the league and has all these accomplishments and knows what it takes, and I can learn something from her,” Hull said of Bonner. “And then she randomly leaves, and we’re all just kind of like, ‘What happened?’ We were never given an explanation.
“To have no explanation was really challenging, but I think that helped us grow closer together because we’re like, ‘All right, this is us. We’re here. We’re going to support each other. We’re loving each other. We’re going to fight for each other. We’re not going to leave. We’re in this together,'" she added.
Lexie Hull reflects on DeWanna Bonner’s exit:
— Claire: Caitlin Clark Style (@caitlinclarksty) October 27, 2025
“I was super, super, super excited because finally there's a [player in my position] that I can look up to… I can learn something from her,” Hull says. “And then she randomly leaves, and we're all just kind of like, ‘What happened?’… pic.twitter.com/0UDPm0nyUI
Emily Tannenbaum, who interviewed Hull, also wrote, "Speaking to Hull about Bonner’s decision to leave the Fever, it seemed to me that there was still lingering hurt and confusion."
It would be interesting to hear Bonner's side of the story on why she never contacted her teammates. But it's hard to imagine that explanation will ever arrive.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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