The playoff-bound Fever? Hell, yes. And it's been a very long time coming

The schedule makers and naysayers have done their level best to keep Caitlin Clark and the Fever at bay, but the team wasn't having any of it. Now they're headed to the post-season. Imagine that.

They tried to destroy Caitlin Clark and the playoff-bound – yes, playoff-bound – Indiana Fever.

The WNBA schedule makers? Hell, they had the Fever starting the season with 11 games in 19 days, most of those games coming against New York, Connecticut and Las Vegas, three of the WNBA’s powerhouse teams. The Fever started 1-8 and 2-9 and their season was almost over before it ever began. The Fever weren’t just losing; they were getting blown out, coach Christie Sides was getting eviscerated on social media and it was fair to wonder if the whole Caitlin Clark mania might run headlong into a wall of the WNBA’s making.

Her opponents? They did their best, too. They tried to take Clark out with flagrant fouls; more than 17 percent of flagrant fouls in this year’s WNBA have been committed on plays that targeted Clark. And they went after her with their words, folks like New York’s Dijonai Carrington questioning Clark’s willingness to control her hardcore fan base, who she suggested have posted racially-charged comments on social media. She’s heard Angel Reese complain about how Clark gets a “special whistle.” And then there’s been the commentary from former greats, notably Sheryl Swoopes, who has gone out of her way to either to ignore or diminish Clark.

The jealousy has been mind-boggling. Assuming it’s just jealousy. It might be something else, something more.

Charles Barkley put it well…indelicately, but well.