Kelly Krauskopf is stepping down as Indiana Fever team president, Pacers Sports & Entertainment announced Friday, Oct. 23. The organization says she made the decision and told leadership before the end of the 2026 regular season. This departure reaches beyond the WNBA side of the building.
I think Pacers fans should remember Krauskopf as a basketball executive whose work belonged to both teams. She helped build the Fever, moved into Indiana’s NBA front office and then returned to lead the WNBA franchise again. By the time the Pacers hired her, she had already helped the Fever win a championship and return to the playoffs year after year.
Her move between the teams gives Pacers fans a reason to look closely at that Fever record. The experience she brought to the NBA job came from years of decisions on the WNBA side. Her earlier success should count when we assess the executive Indiana hired, just as it would for someone arriving from another NBA team.
The Pacers hired a proven basketball executive
The Pacers announced her hiring on Dec. 17, 2018, with a Jan. 1, 2019 start date, per NBA.com.
The official hiring release described someone who had already spent 19 seasons as the Fever’s top executive. It also noted that she had overseen the Pacers’ NBA 2K League team during the previous year. Indiana was hiring from within an organization she already knew, after she had held responsibility for very different basketball operations.
Kevin Pritchard’s explanation in that release makes clear why he wanted her. He pointed to her experience as a player, in the WNBA league office and in running the Fever. He also cited her knowledge of the wider organization. Those were practical qualifications for a basketball job, earned before anyone could write about the significance of the appointment.
Krauskopf became the NBA’s first female assistant general manager. Her appointment broke a barrier, and her winning record explains why Indiana chose her. Treating her appointment only as a first would leave out the work that made the hiring make sense. The Fever’s achievements were evidence that she could do the job Indiana needed done.
Consistency was the standard she brought back
The Fever’s October 2024 account of her return lays out her earlier tenure: 12 consecutive playoff appearances from 2005 through 2016, three Finals trips during that stretch and the 2012 championship. The team described the playoff run as a WNBA record.
The long playoff run stands out to me. A championship can become the shorthand for an executive’s entire career. Here, that would miss years of competitive teams on either side of the title. The trophy gave the Fever their best night; those consecutive appearances gave fans reasons to expect meaningful basketball again the next season.
When she came back, Krauskopf made consistency the stated goal. The Fever’s coverage of her introduction described her desire to restore that earlier standard. It also explained that CEO Mel Raines approached her after Allison Barber announced plans to step down. Her return was a new leadership assignment at a franchise she knew well, rather than a continuation of her Pacers job.
She also brought a specific basketball idea back with her. In that same 2024 introduction, Krauskopf compared Caitlin Clark’s playmaking with Tyrese Haliburton’s and discussed surrounding Clark and Aliyah Boston with experienced veterans. She saw the passer as a reason other players would want to join the team. She could apply what she had learned with one team to her work with the other.
For the current Pacers, the supporting cast remains central to both our concerns about the second unit and the closing partnership between Haliburton and Siakam. Krauskopf’s comments show how she thought about a similar problem with the Fever: a gifted passer gives a team an advantage, and choosing the players around her determines how much the team gets from it.
The next chapter includes something she helped build
Friday’s Fever announcement credits Krauskopf with six years in the Pacers’ operation and says the Fever reached the 2025 WNBA semifinals and returned to the playoffs in 2026 during her second tenure. It also credits her with helping lead development of the team’s new sports performance center, scheduled to open in March 2027.
The project shows why a president’s work extends beyond the season’s final result. In its January 2025 announcement, architect Populous described a $78 million, 108,000-square-foot complex. Plans included two regulation courts, strength and conditioning equipment, recovery facilities and mental performance spaces. Those are concrete investments in the daily conditions players work in.
That project gives the next Fever president work to complete as well as something to inherit. The proposed courts and recovery areas address the daily needs of players across a full season. I would include that investment in any assessment of Krauskopf’s second tenure, alongside the postseason results. Her contribution will still be visible after her departure.
Krauskopf’s departure asks the Fever to carry that work forward. For Pacers fans, it is also a reminder to give an executive’s WNBA accomplishments their full weight when telling her NBA story. Indiana should remember both the championship she helped build and the experience she brought across to the Pacers.