Stephanie White Shrugs Off Concern About Kelsey Mitchell's Finger Injury

Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White spoke about the finger injury Kelsey Mitchell suffered while playing in China this past offseason.
Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White welcomes Natasha Howard back to the team Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, during a press conference at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White welcomes Natasha Howard back to the team Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, during a press conference at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. | Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When speaking with the media after an Indiana Fever practice on May 7, star guard Kelsey Mitchell showed a contorted left middle finger and spoke about how she injured that finger while playing in China this past WNBA offseason.

Mitchell was then asked whether the finger is still dislocated, and said, "Probably healing on its own now. Nothing I can really do about it... Obviously, the trainers here have taken care of me to get done with I need to get done. But there's only so much you can do with a semi-fractured finger.

"It's part of life, part of basketball at that point. Normal stuff athletes go through," she added.

While Mitchell didn't seem overly concerned, this was still alarming for Fever fans — if only because they didn't know about this injury beforehand.

The good news is that Stephanie White echoed Mitchell's lack of concern with asked about her finger on May 9.

"I forget about Kelsey's finger, because she was playing great with it overseas," White said, per an X post from Chloe Peterson of IndyStar. "Certainly, her shot is a little funky in the way it releases anyway, and I think she has learned to protect it. So for her, it's like she's efficient, she's effective. Until she complains about it hurting, no concerns."

She later added, "She was scoring 30 over there with a finger looking crazy... I think the biggest thing is seeing the swelling go down, seeing a little bit more range of motion. The work that she put in to position herself with that. The most important thing to me is that it's not getting hurt every time it gets tweaked."

Fever fans can breathe easy knowing Mitchell's injury is of little concern currently.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

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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