By Madie Chandler | FeverBasketball.com

“I want to win a championship,” DeWanna Bonner, new Indiana Fever signee, said on Monday. “I want to win another championship. I want to get back to the Finals, first and foremost.”

Bonner comes to the Fever as a massive free agent signing – the 37-year-old is a bona fide star, and won two WNBA championships with the Phoenix Mercury in 2009 and 2014. She’s made the trip to the WNBA semifinals each of the last two years with the Connecticut Sun, and intends to bring a championship pedigree to mesh with the Indiana Fever’s young core.

Bonner’s name is already etched in the annals of WNBA history – she’s league’s fourth all-time leading scorer, a six-time All-Star, and a two-time WNBA champion. Sandwiched between two Hall of Famers on the all-time scoring list, Bonner is surrounded by greatness, and she hopes to extend it into the future during her tenure with the Fever.

She passed Fever great Tamika Catchings last season, and is just seven points shy of overtaking Tina Thompson’s third overall spot. Before long, Bonner will hold the second all-time scoring position – she just needs to score 215 points to get there.

And Bonner is confident that scoring with Indiana will be easy.

“Playing with Kelsey [Mitchell] and Lexie Hull and [Aliyah Boston],” Bonner started. “It’s just going to be easy to score.”

Mitchell recently signed an extension with Indiana while Boston and Hull will enter their third and fourth years as professionals, respectively, at the beginning of the Fever season. Bonner will also benefit from the transcendent play of reigning Rookie of the Year, Caitlin Clark.

“I couldn’t be more excited to step on the floor with Caitlin,” Bonner said on Monday. “…I hope that I can give her some knowledge and take her game to a bigger level, so when I retire, she can pass that along to other players.”

Paying it forward is a motivational piece for Bonner, who recognizes Indiana’s position as the epicenter of a women’s sports explosion.

“Coming to a franchise that’s growing women’s sports…I’m just blessed,” Bonner said. “I’m just honored to be here now, and hopefully I can put out the product that everyone deserves here.”

Bonner has plenty of familiarity with the Indiana Fever regime – she spent her last two seasons in Connecticut with Fever coach Stephanie White, as well as coaches Austin Kelly and Keith Porter. Indiana’s COO and general manager, Amber Cox, has known Bonner personally since she entered the league in 2009.

“I knew from the beginning that all the lines kind of connected to Indiana,” Bonner said of her free agency. “I mean the position, the basketball they play, [Stephanie White] and [Austin Kelly] left and came here…I knew it.”

Indiana gets Bonner closer to her twin daughters, and closer to WNBA championships.

Bonner’s competitive fire on the court mirrors that of Clark’s, and pairing the two was a dream for Fever brass – until they made that dream a reality.

“That’s a match made in heaven,” Fever President of Basketball and Business Operations Kelly Krauskopf said of the duo. “…That is the one thing about DeWanna Bonner for me that I always, always, put number one when I was looking at her to add to the roster. She is an incredibly, incredibly fiery, competitive player on every possession, and consistently is the same.”

Bonner is a career 15 points per game scorer, and her 6-foot-4 frame gives her the length to be a feisty defender on a Fever team that seeks to raise its level on that side of the ball. More valuable than that, Bonner has played in 502 WNBA games – the third-most all-time. Her 15 years of experience in the league give her a wealth of knowledge to impart on her younger teammates.

“Adding pieces and players that have been in this league – they know what it takes to win, they know what it takes to get to the Finals, they know what it takes to win championships – I think is exactly what we needed in our locker room,” Clark said on Monday. “So it’s just exciting, but also, they’re not only really great basketball players, they’re really great leaders and really great people. I know the front office obviously really prioritized that.”

As Indiana’s front office finalizes its roster ahead of the start of the WNBA season, Bonner settles in and gears up for a new campaign. Though her eyes are set on championships and greatness, Bonner and the Fever know that banners are hung one win at a time.

“Of course, on paper a roster can look great,” Bonner said. “But it’s going to take what we do in this practice gym, outside this practice gym, how we stay locked in, and steps to keep the main thing, the main thing. It’s a process…We want to be better than we were in May in June and July…This league is tough. Every game is going to be tough.”

The Fever are poised to make serious noise when the WNBA season rolls around, but the work behind the scenes begins now.