Former WNBA All-Star MVP Erica Wheeler returns to Indiana Fever as veteran voice

INDIANAPOLIS -- Christie Sides knew when she was hired as the Fever coach this offseason that she needed another adult in the room.

The 46-year-old Louisiana native and first-time head coach was presiding over the mother of all youth movements. The Fever had seven draft picks in the 2022 draft and had five more coming in 2023. Even though some of those 2022 picks had already moved on, she knew an overwhelming amount of her roster would be first- and second-year players. She knew she had a couple of experienced veterans in guards Kelsey Mitchell and Victoria Vivians, and forward Emma Cannon but not much beyond that.

So one of the first personnel moves she pushed for when she got the job was to bring in Erica Wheeler as a free agent.

Sides had been an assistant with the Fever during Wheeler's first stint in Indiana and she was an assistant in 2022 in Atlanta when Wheeler was with the Dream. Sides knew what she needed in a veteran point guard, and she knew Wheeler was ready for it.

"When I got this job, she was No. 1 on my list," Sides said. "I saw her do it (in Atlanta). I was happy she didn't have a contract. She was up. It was just perfect timing."

It was also exactly what Wheeler was looking for at this stage of her career. The former undrafted free-agent out of Rutgers enters her eighth season in the league -- ninth if you count the 2020 bubble season, which she missed while on COVID protocol -- having just turned 32 and having grown comfortable with the idea of being vocal and helping direct young players to where they want to go.

So far in camp, Wheeler has had to do a lot of direction. She has more experience with Sides than anyone else and even the other veterans are getting used to her plays, schemes and terminology. But it's an experience she's enjoying.

"It's fun," Wheeler said. "Naturally I'm a talker. Naturally, I'm a giver, so for me this is just natural for me. Being in this position that Christie put me in, being a leader, it's been great."

What Sides likes most about Wheeler is that she knows how to push younger teammates without causing problems, and she has the credibility to do it.

Wheeler's improbable path to the WNBA has been well-documented. She grew up in the famously rough Liberty City neighborhood of Miami and lost her mother to cancer prior to her senior year at Rutgers. She went undrafted in 2013 and spent two years playing overseas before she got another shot at the WNBA in 2015, making the Dream roster in preseason camp before being cut during the season but signing with the New York Liberty.

After that, she signed with the Fever in 2016 and was with the franchise through the 2020 season, earning an All-Star nod in 2019 and winning the MVP of the game with 25 points and seven assists. After missing 2020, she spent a year with the Sparks, averaging a career-high 13.6 points per game, and a year with the Dream. She may be undersized at 5-7 and she didn't enter the league with the pedigree that many of her young teammates have, but she's proven that she can survive in a league that has a total of 144 roster spots, so she commands respect.

"She's just got that experience and she can talk to people," Sides said. "She can get on to you and you're gonna get mad at her, and she going to be like, 'Boom, I'm going to take you to dinner tonight, let's go.' That's just how she operates. It's all for the team. It was just really important to get someone like her and her energy. Her energy in the locker room. Her energy out here, it makes a huge difference."

Teammates that have known her since her first stint with the Fever see a leader even better prepared for this role than she was four years ago.

"She's been doing it for a long time," said guard Kelsey Mitchell, who was drafted by the Fever in 2018 and shared a backcourt with Wheeler for her first two years as a pro before Wheeler left. "With her experience, being in Indiana before, she was in L.A., she was in Atlanta. She's cultivated so much experience that, for us and what she wants to do here, I think we can all kinda do it together and take on her leadership and kinda utilize it for all these young ones."

And on the floor she hasn't lost a step. Her 8.4 points and 3.9 assists last season for the Dream were a step down from her numbers with the Sparks and she shot just 35.5% from the floor last season, but she's just as tough to cover as she's ever been with speed off the dribble and plenty of muscle in her small frame.

"She's so quick," said guard Kristy Wallace, who came over with Wheeler from the Dream. "She can stop on a dime as well. I've been on the back end of that a few times trying to guard her speed and then her quick pull-up."

The challenge she's signed up for isn't easy. The Fever are coming off a 5-31 record and have players who are just learning their way around the facility and the city.

"It's been great to give the feedback that I've got over the years from my vets," Wheeler said. "Now I'm a vet. Getting old over here, man. So it's just been great being able to be in this position and these guys are listening to me and allowing me to be their leader."