Kelsey Mitchell’s Intense Playoff Journey
Kelsey Mitchell really pushed herself to the limit, quite literally.
She pointed out the ironic timing of this season’s end after her star player suffered a rare injury. During a tough Game 5 against the Ace, Mitchell experienced Rhabdomyolysis, a serious condition where muscles break down and release proteins into the bloodstream.
Despite the severity of the injury, Mitchell was fortunate enough to walk off—both figuratively and literally—after rejoining her team on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, the Fever lost that family showdown, and the energy seemed to have faded away.
“It feels good,” Mitchell commented in an exit interview on Thursday. “But I don’t think I can play a real game right now. I probably lost a lot of fluids and need some time to reset. That experience really left my legs feeling numb; it’s hard to describe, like, I couldn’t feel my feet at all.”
As for the injury, Mitchell suspects it resulted from overuse. She mentioned that she’d never played so many games in a season or gone as deep into the postseason before. During the regular season, she logged a career-high of 1,381 minutes, then added another 261 minutes in the playoffs.
For Mitchell, given the burden of those minutes, it might be surprising she played so aggressively, constantly weaving around the court to get the ball. But, she adds, it wasn’t something she could really prepare for.
“When I finished, the doctors said it was a ‘once in a lifetime’ thing,” Mitchell recalled. “Nobody really thought about Rhabdo during Game 5. For me, I really knew my body, but if you want to be at the top of your game, you kind of have to keep pushing.”
Mitchell adopted a lighter tone on Thursday, joking about the number of practices head coach Stephanie White had put them through.
She described feeling her legs “hit the floor” after taking some three-pointers. On one play, after a foul, she felt her legs lock up. Admittedly, she panicked at first when she couldn’t feel them. But the support from her teammates helped ground her.
“Without them, I think I would have been pretty emotional on the court,” Mitchell shared. “Aliya Boston was right there praying for me, holding my hand. It reminded me of Lexi Hull and Bri Turner; they were like, ‘You’ll be okay. Your legs will eventually move.'” She added, “It’s amazing to play with those guys—I’m ready to go to battle with them every day.”
As she began to calm down, spectators started to recognize the severity of the situation when a stretcher was brought onto the court. Even though she still couldn’t lift her legs, she had no intention of leaving the game on a stretcher.
“No way I’m using that stretcher,” Mitchell said about her initial reaction. “I’m not leaving on that; if you can help me off the floor, I’ll finish the game.” But she joked that her feet looked like they were hanging uselessly due to lack of blood flow.
“I was determined not to be taken out on a stretcher. I felt it was important to stand up and figure it out on my own,” she noted.
Eventually, she managed to catch part of the game’s end while receiving fluids and later went to the hospital to get more. Her absence didn’t stop the Fever from fighting valiantly, taking the game into overtime before ultimately falling short.
Mitchell reassured everyone that there would be no long-term effects from the injury and indicated it would serve as a valuable lesson for her about listening to her body. Yet, reflecting on everything, she expressed that she would take the chance to compete with her teammates again in a heartbeat.
“I wouldn’t have changed a thing,” Mitchell emphasized. “I played until the wheels literally fell off… And honestly, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything; it’s once in a lifetime, and I learned so much about myself.”
