TRENDING College football updates NFL injury updates Brewers take Game 1 Tatum downplays beef Knicks change ring tune Story by Story by Fever Fire GM Amber Cox Hours After Kelly Krauskopf Steps Down (Clark Wade/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK) Grant Afseth Sat, October 24, 2026 at 4:53 PM UTC · 5 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Indiana Fever fired general manager Amber Cox on Friday, more than eight hours after team president Kelly Krauskopf stepped down.
Krauskopf's departure came in a 10 a.m. ET release. Annie Costabile of The Athletic first reported Cox's firing that afternoon, and the team announced it in the evening.
Pacers Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Fever, will conduct a national search for the next general manager.
Fever coach Stephanie White is expected to remain in her role, sources told ESPN's Alexa Philippou .
Indiana went 52-36 in Cox's two seasons. This year's 28-16 record set a franchise mark for wins, and the Fever entered the WNBA playoffs as the No. 6 seed for the third straight season.
"Through her two seasons with the Fever, Amber has helped us navigate the seismic growth of both the WNBA and our franchise," Mel Raines, president and CEO of PS&E, said in a statement. "We're grateful for her contributions and wish her the very best moving forward."
Cox joined the Fever in October 2024 after two years as chief operating officer of the Dallas Wings.
She took over as general manager from Lin Dunn, who moved into a senior advisor role, and held the chief operating officer title in Indianapolis as well.
Earlier in her career, Cox was vice president of sports for the Connecticut Sun and chief operating officer of the Phoenix Mercury, where she was part of championships in 2007 and 2009.
In their first offseason together, Krauskopf and Cox fired Christie Sides, who had coached Indiana for two seasons, and hired White. She played for the Fever from 2000 to 2004 and was the team's head coach in 2015 and 2016.
Krauskopf was the franchise's first president and general manager, hired before the inaugural 2000 season. Indiana made the playoffs 12 consecutive years under her, reached three WNBA Finals, and won the 2012 championship.
She moved to the Indiana Pacers in 2018 as assistant general manager, the first woman in NBA history to hold that title. In 2024, she returned to the Fever as president of basketball and business operations.
Krauskopf said she informed the team of her decision before the season ended.
"It has been an honor and a privilege to help build and steward the Indiana Fever with the support and trust of Herb Simon," Krauskopf said in a statement.
Sources told Philippou that Krauskopf never intended to stay in the job long term and had anticipated two or three years.
Las Vegas ended Indiana's season Oct. 1, winning Game 3 of the first round 94-83 to take the series 2-1.
The Aces also eliminated the Fever in 2025, winning Game 5 of the semifinals in overtime. Indiana's only playoff series win under Cox came against the Atlanta Dream in the first round that year.
This season, the Fever averaged 96.0 points per game. That broke the WNBA single-season record of 93.9, set by the 2010 Mercury.
Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston were all named All-Stars.
Mitchell averaged 24.7 points, second in the league. Her 1,086 points and 135 3-pointers both set single-season records.
Clark averaged 22.3 points, third in the league. Her 8.3 assists per game ranked second.
Last offseason, Indiana signed Monique Billings, Myisha Hines-Allen, and Tyasha Harris. Hines-Allen had 12 points and 12 rebounds in Game 3 against Las Vegas.
Cox held her final news conference with the Fever on Oct. 3.
She defended the team's fanbase four days after Aces star A'ja Wilson confronted a fan behind the baseline in Game 2 of the series.
Being characterized in such a broad stroke was not fair to a fanbase that puts 17,000 people in Gainbridge Fieldhouse most nights, Cox said.
"The attacks on our fanbase have no basis in reality, and they need to stop," Cox said, "especially with members of the media. ... I'm talking about media who have never been to a game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Every organization in the league, every organization throughout professional sports, all the way down to youth rec leagues, have to deal with occasional bad behavior from spectators. And anyone who crosses the line in an arena or online needs to be held accountable. I want to be really clear about that. There is a line, and people need to be held accountable if they cross it.
"But here's the fact: We did not have one fan pointed out by a player who violated the WNBA code of conduct this season," Cox continued. "Not one fan was removed from a game. ... Our fans love this team. They're going to cheer, they're going to boo, and sometimes they might point. It's a home-court advantage for a reason, and it's the same for the Pacers. And all of that is within the code of conduct."
Brianna Turner, who played for the Fever before joining the Aces, called Cox's statement "unequivocally false" in a social media post that day.
The Fever drafted Mitchell No. 2 overall in 2018. She is an unrestricted free agent, and she said Oct. 3 that she will be "selfish" when she makes her decision.
"I don't think people really understand how much we endure, man," Mitchell said. "Like, if I showed y'all my DMs about the hate and all of the stuff that comes with being a professional athlete, but specifically being an Indiana Fever basketball player, it's a lot that goes into that. And those days are hard as hell, man.
"Playing with [Caitlin Clark] and having the eyes that she's got [on her], we get a lot of flak just from being on her team," Mitchell added. "I think that that comes with a lot too. And I just think that people [have] got to give us grace. I think this organization is unbelievable, man. But I think that when it comes to, like, really trying to be yourself, it hasn't always been easy."
A four-time All-Star, Mitchell has played all nine of her WNBA seasons in Indiana.
Whoever Indiana hires as its next general manager will inherit that decision along with a roster built around Clark and Boston, while White is expected to remain in place as coach.
Source: Sports
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