The Indiana Fever have revoked media credentials from longtime Indiana basketball reporter Scott Agness, he said Tuesday in a post on his website Fieldhouse Files. The team’s public relations staff told him the decision was due to “the spread of inaccurate and unsubstantiated information” related to Caitlin Clark’s injury status in a game against the Portland Fire on May 20.
The Fever announced that Clark would miss that game less than two hours before tipoff in Indianapolis. “I’m told it’s part of a strategic management plan for the season,” Agness wrote in a tweet sharing the news. Clark missed 31 games in 2025 with various injuries, but wasn’t previously on the injury report before she was ruled out. League rules state that teams must report player injury and illness information by 5 p.m. local time the day before a game, and identify a specific “reason for any player whose participation in the game may be affected for any reason.”
In his May 20 story on the news of Clark’s absence, Agness clarified the “strategic management plan” phrase he’d used in his earlier tweet: “That was not to insinuate load management, but rather emphasize the precautionary measure given what she experienced last season,” he wrote. In his post on Tuesday, Agness said Fever PR took issue with that phrase, which he said was based on “information from a trusted league source.”
Fever head coach Stephanie White told reporters in her press conference before the May 20 game that Clark had woken up with some back stiffness and soreness. “It’s not the time to take a chance,” White said. “We just want to be cautious.” When a reporter followed up to ask whether there was any concern about the injury beyond that day, White quickly said, “No, there’s not,” before adding, “Or, I don’t know.”
Later in the press conference, White denied that this was a load-management decision, though she didn’t definitively say the decision wasn’t precautionary, and she added that Clark hadn’t participated in practice the previous day and had received treatment. “She’s healthy,” White said. “We’re not managing anything. This is just a back issue that we want to make sure we give the time to be ready.”
Afterward, the league reportedly warned the Fever about following proper injury reporting procedures. Teams can be fined for breaking those rules: In 2024, The Athletic reported, the Las Vegas Aces were fined for failing to list an A’ja Wilson ankle injury on the report before a game against the New York Liberty. Since the Fire game, Clark has been listed as “probable” on each Fever injury report.
In a conversation with The Athletic, Agness said that the intent of his original report was not to expose anything nefarious, but to provide context for why Clark might miss a game this early in the season:
Agness said he did not contact the Fever in an attempt to confirm his reporting prior to posting to X.
“Because I knew what they were going to say,” Agness said. “It was a trusted source that I know is spot-on. The other thing is, I felt if anything, this was helping them out.
“If you go inside the quick story, the point of it was there is no new injury; she is healthy. This is part of the bigger plan, the strategic management-type plan. The point in my mind was to emphasize to fans she’s good, no worries. This is just part of the recovery process after everything she’s been through last year.”
The WNBA chapter of the Professional Basketball Writers Association responded to the credential decision in a statement, “object[ing] in the strongest possible terms to any reporter losing access for the act of reporting.”
In his note to subscribers, Agness said his access to the Pacers was also limited before the 2023-24 NBA season, when it “inexplicably shifted overnight.” By All-Star Weekend of that year, he said he had no access. The Fever and Pacers have separate PR staffs but share a parent organization, Pacers Sports & Entertainment.
Agness launched Fieldhouse Files in 2020, after eight years covering the Pacers for The Athletic and Pacers.com. He wrote that the teams’ decisions have made it “increasingly difficult for an independent journalist to provide the type of on-the-ground coverage that readers deserve.” The league has tightened its media rules in ways that specifically affect independent journalists: Under the two-tiered credentialing system implemented this year, reporters not governed by a “standard editorial process” can be given limited access.
Agness wrote that he’d attended “every Fever training camp practice this season, every home game, and every playoff game over the last several years (and the Commissioner’s Cup final).” His recent coverage of the team includes a feature on Fever coaching staff member Tully Bevilaqua and another story on the team waiving guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. For other coverage of the Fever, you can check out “Jeff Teague REACTS to Caitlin Clark getting COOKED & ARGUING with Coach In Fever LOSS” or “Shannon Sharpe GOES OFF on Caitlin Clark’s on-court antics” on YouTube.
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