{"id":750846,"date":"2026-06-02T21:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/750846\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:48:15","slug":"why-fever-reporter-lost-credentials-for-spreading-inaccurate-information-after-reporting-on-caitlin-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/750846\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Fever reporter lost credentials for spreading ‘inaccurate information’ after reporting on Caitlin Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Fever reporter lost credentials for spreading ‘inaccurate information’ after reporting on Caitlin Clark<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark<\/a>‘s surprise absence during the Fever<\/a>‘s May 20 tilt with the Portland Fire<\/a> had a dire impact on veteran reporter Scott Agness’ relationship with Indiana<\/a>‘s press relations.<\/p>\n

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Clark was surprisingly ruled inactive for the nationally televised contest despite not being listed on an injury report the day before. Agness, a longtime journalist who has covered the Fever for a decade, reported that Clark’s absence was part of a cautionary strategy employed by Indiana to limit the strain on Clark’s body after an injury-plagued 2025.<\/p>\n

What seemed a fairly benign report appears to have turned sour for Agness, who announced on June 2 that he had his press credentials formally revoked for his reporting around Clark’s DNP.<\/p>\n

Here’s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

SN’s WNBA HQ:\u00a0Live WNBA scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Updated WNBA standings<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Full WNBA schedule<\/a><\/p>\n

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What happened to Scott Agness?<\/p>\n

Agness, the man behind Fieldhouse Files \u2014 one of the more popular basketball publications on Substack \u2014 explained that he had his “credentialed access to all team events” revoked in a recent post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indiana’s public relations cited Agness’ tweet about Clark being ruled out 100 minutes before the start of its May 20 contest with the Fire as reason for his ban.<\/p>\n

According to Agness, Fever PR claimed that Agness’ tweet \u2014 which says Clark’s absence was “part of a strategic management plan for the season” \u2014 was “inaccurate and unsubstantiated.”<\/p>\n

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“In my response, I told the organization that I stand by my reporting and the intent behind it,” Agness wrote.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Sophie Cunningham reveals Fever held ‘secret’ team meetings<\/a><\/p>\n

Why did Fever revoke Scott Agness’ credentials?<\/p>\n

Agness offered context for the factors that may have led to Indiana’s decision to banish him from credentialed access in his latest Substack post. His coverage of Clark’s absence appears to have sparked the Fever into action.<\/p>\n

On May 20, Agness \u2013 who\u00a0has covered Indiana since 2013 \u2014 wrote that the Fever were limiting Clark in part due to “a strategic management plan.” That wasn’t to say that Indiana had a doctrine laid out to keep Clark off the floor at different points of the season, Agness explained. Rather, he viewed the situation as a fluid one, with the Fever taking into account the injury woes Clark suffered during her sophomore campaign to determine which games to include her in.<\/p>\n

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Agness included Clark’s words in his piece, including a May 26 interview with the Indiana supernova discussing her back, which can often be seen cloaked in a black heating pad while on the bench.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t think it necessarily started at a certain point,” Clark said of her back health. “I think it\u2019s just been over the course of the last year when I\u2019ve been understanding my body more.<\/p>\n

“I think it\u2019s just finding the balance of when I maybe don\u2019t need to be as aware and when I\u2019m maybe a little too overaware. So still working through that,\u00a0but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything of concern.”<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0How Caitlin Clark and Raven Johnson put past beef behind them as WNBA teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

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“The Fever took specific issue with the phrase ‘strategic management plan.'” Agness wrote on June 2. “That\u2019s their right. However, it is consistent with what the team has been publicly emphasizing since last season \u2014 keeping the big picture in mind and taking a cautious approach.”<\/p>\n

Agness also cited his faltering relationship with the Pacers as a potential factor in the Fever’s decision to revoke his credentials. Since the 2023-24 season, Agness has been subjected to less access than expected for a journalist of his experience.<\/p>\n

Following NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis in 2024, Agness had no access and was taken off the Pacers’ email distribution because he had parked in the media lot “without the appropriate passes or clearance.” Agness denies the Pacers’ charges vehemently. He also believes it has affected his standing with NBA PR at large. For example, Agness had his credential to cover the 2026 All-Star Game \u2014 one which featured Indiana star Pascal Siakam \u2014 revoked. He also was ruled ineligible to attend last month’s NBA Draft Lottery.<\/p>\n

“I cannot definitively say whether those Pacers circumstances influenced the Fever\u2019s decision,” Agness wrote. “What I can say is that this latest action follows a pattern that has made it increasingly difficult for an independent journalist to provide the type of on-the-ground coverage that readers deserve.”<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0Why did Caitlin Clark receive backlash for attending Morgan Wallen concert?<\/a><\/p>\n

What did Scott Agness say about Caitlin Clark, Fever?<\/p>\n

Agness didn’t appear to say anything too incendiary regarding Clark. Rather, he reported that Indiana’s decision to leave Clark out of its May 20 matchup against Portland was informed by an aversion to over-exert Clark given the injury-plagued notion of her 2025 season. Clark played in just 13 games as a sophomore.<\/p>\n

Clark appeared to offer a similar assessment while speaking with reporters prior to the Fever’s May 22 game against the Valkyries.<\/p>\n

“These are the best players in the world and if I don\u2019t feel a hundred percent confident in my body, like on game five of the year, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s really worth it in that scenario,” Clark said.<\/p>\n

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“I want to play every single game. I want to play 44 games in a season. I\u2019m doing everything I can to do that. I\u2019m putting my body in my best position I can to \u2014 and I feel really good and really confident in my body, but there\u2019s moments where I still struggle a little bit and I get in my head and things like that and I\u2019m sore. That\u2019s just the reality of it.”<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Indiana’s PR seemed dismayed with Agness’ view on the Fever’s handling of Clark’s health. The Fever have summarily been criticized<\/a> for their heavy-handed approach to dealing with Agness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Fever reporter lost credentials for spreading ‘inaccurate information’ after reporting on Caitlin Clark originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[92269,7,455,3732,113,126,3866,6,114,279,52082,29268,3748,35293],"class_list":["post-750846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-agness","tag-basketball","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-fever","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-nba","tag-pacers","tag-pascal-siakam","tag-portland-fire","tag-scott-agness","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-the-fever"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116682719478924051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}