Fever hire ex-White House adviser as COO, promote Catchings

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Fever have hired former White House adviser Allison Barber as its new president and chief operating officer and promoted former star Tamika Catchings to vice president of basketball operations.

Barber replaces Kelly Krauskopf, who became assistant general manager of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers in December. Barber has been serving as chancellor of Western Governors University Indiana.

She also was deputy assistant secretary of defense and special detail to the Office of Global Communications in the White House during part of the George W. Bush administration.

Barber begins her new job on March 18, the Fever announced Monday.

Catchings helped Indiana win the 2012 WNBA title and earned Finals MVP honors. She also won four Olympic gold medals and the 1998 NCAA title with Tennessee.

Catchings previously served as director of player programs and franchise development. She currently serves as co-chair of the local organizing committee board for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis.

“Bringing Allison to our franchise and watching Tamika step into a larger role has leadership written all over it,” said Fever general manager and coach Pokey Chatman. 

Catching said, “It’s been an awesome journey. When I got finished playing, everyone was like, ‘What’s next?’ We’ve established so many different things here. Honestly, I can’t imagine being anywhere else. When I sit down with my husband at night, I tell him I really want to be in Indy.”

The former Fever standout said she thinks the franchise will get back to its winning ways in the near future. 

“We have a lot of great players, being able to build off of our core group and start thinking about the other pieces that we need to add. Then I’ll start getting in the mix and figuring out what are the players and who do we want to fit that puzzle,” Catchings said.

The draft begins in April. The Fever have the third overall pick.