ION published a graphic promoting the Indiana Fever's game against the Dallas Wings today — a graphic that featured Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, Lexi Hull, and Raven Johnson. (For the curious, the game begins tonight at 7 p.m. EST.)
The graphic looks great, but the specific players that ION chose for it are pretty curious. Bueckers was drafted as the No. 1 overall pick by the Wings in 2025, and Ogunbowale was selected as the team's No. 5 overall pick in 2019. Hull was drafted as the No. 6 overall pick by the Fever in 2022, and the team picked up Johnson this year as the No. 10 overall pick.
SHOWTIME IN PRIMETIME 🤩
— WNBA on ION (@IONWNBA) August 14, 2026
The stars are shining in Indy as Paige Bueckers and the @DallasWings face off with Lexie Hull and the @IndianaFever. 💥
Coverage begins TONIGHT at 7 PM ET on ION 📺 pic.twitter.com/m8Vb8pKEoz
This isn't an opportunity to slam Hull or Johnson, and in fact, pairing Hull with Ogunbowale would have made a lot of sense given they were drafted at similar spots. But if ION was going for a nod to the league's Rivals Week, it certainly doesn't make sense that they decided not to feature Aliyah Boston, who was drafted as the No. 1 overall pick by the Fever in 2023, or Caitlin Clark, who the team picked up as the No. 1 pick in 2024. Kelsey Mitchell, who was drafted as the No. 2 overall pick by the Fever in 2018, also would have been a great choice.
Plenty of people suspect someone at ION designed the graphic in question intentionally to spark conversations exactly like this. There's no way for most of us to know if this is true unless the network decides to speak up, but the possibility is pretty disappointing. Despite what some on the outside might think, the WNBA has been doing a lot this season to dispel and/or discourage negative headlines and narratives that have nothing to do with the game. The idea that a media company the league partners with could be doing something that undermines those efforts is pretty frustrating.
No matter what did or did not factor into ION's decision making here, those who are trying to once again make this a conversation only about Clark are also misguided, no matter how noble their intentions might be. The Fever have quite a few top WNBA Draft picks on the team's roster this season, and any one of them should probably be featured on a graphic that includes one of their counterparts. If the constant messaging is the WNBA needs to be better and meet the moment, things like this do little to serve that goal.
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