INDIANAPOLIS — About two hours before Stephanie White appeared for her regular pregame media availability Tuesday, graffiti-colored storm clouds loomed over Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the city skyline. The Indiana Fever coach later produced more thunder than either of them.
Against calls for her sacking and “an online community trying to create stories that simply don’t exist”, White gave an impassioned two-minute statement defending her relationship with the Fever players, occasionally banging the table and leaving the podium without taking questions.
“Hate, fearmongering, divisiveness, things trying to take our league away from us are not going to win,” White said, pumping her fist to underline the last three words. “They will not win. We are one. We are connected. We will not be divided. Every day these women put their asses on the line. Every day. When they go low, we go high. Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win. And kindness.
“I stand by them, I will always stand by them. Everyone else can go to hell.”
After a 106-92 win over the New York Liberty — the seventh in nine straight for the Fever — White confirmed her comments were another byproduct an increasingly notorious flagrant offense by the Chicago Sky’s DiJonai Carrington on Saturday, in which Carrington effectively tripped the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham on a layup attempt in the first quarter, earning her an ejection.
Immediately after the Fever’s 90-86 win, White — who previously coached Carrington at the Connecticut Sun — said she didn’t believe Carrington “came out on purpose to get (Cunningham) through the door.” She added that the Sky guard will “play off his ass, man” and that she shouldn’t expect easy layups with Carrington on the floor.
The reaction was quick. Indiana Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith published on X that White should be fired because “no solid coach would ever take the side of an opposing player who committed a flagrant foul on one of your players.”
Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy also called on Monday, saying Carrington “attacked” Cunningham and insinuating White was too coy in response.
“Get her out of there,” Portnoy said. “Fire her today. Stop defending other players.”
The tipping point came around 6:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, when a visibly emotional White sat down for commentary ahead of the Fever’s game against the New York Liberty.
“You know, this isn’t necessarily for the people in this room,” White began. “This is more for the online community trying to create narratives that just don’t exist. Trying to create fabrications or distortions of who I am, which is what it’s all about.”
“The success of our players, the health and well-being of our players, the safety of our players are always my first priority. One of the things I pride myself on is my relationship with the players.”
As for the Carrington foul, White said she “didn’t see the play in real time” and didn’t have the benefit of a replay before arriving at her postgame comments. “Was it terrible? Absolutely,” she said. “When you have a chance to watch it, over and over again, you can see it.”
From there, Beli launched a counterattack.
“I take personally any suggestions that I don’t always support my players 100 percent,” White said. “I ride with them all the time with 10 toes. All the time. They know it. It’s a shame we don’t get a chance to talk about how great basketball they play. Because they eat to play.”
Two of those players, Cunningham and All-Star running back Caitlin Clark, were quick to appear at the postgame press conference and quickly dismissed the latest narrative to catch a new title contender.
“I think a lot of times we forget, like we’re human,” Clark said after a 22-point, 10-assist night. “And (White) has feelings. There are moments that are really hard. And sometimes it’s just a job that you sign up for, but at the same time, it’s okay to feel those emotions. I just told her, I went through the same thing. There were days when I was really upset, and you can have the thickest skin in the world, but sometimes it gets to you.
“I think our world — we love to hate,” Clark added. “We love sharing. That’s all we want to do. Nobody wants to see each other succeed. It’s a really painful thing for me to watch. I feel like we need to do a better job of lifting each other up. And I assure you, there was no way we were going to lose this game tonight. And I told (Bella) before the game there was no way it was going to be for her.”
Cunningham, who was on the receiving end of Carrington’s offense, dismissed the idea that her coach didn’t protect her enough. “Coach loves us,” Cunningham said. “She didn’t see the tape. At the end of the day, she didn’t see the tape. And you know what? DiJonai, she’s a hell of a player. She’s a great defender. (Bella) coached her for years in Connecticut. … Me and Steph are great. Steph’s great with all of us. But it’s really good to distract us from the outside.”
In fact, as Cunningham was leaving the interview room Tuesday night, White was walking into her session. Cunningham stopped her coach for a hug. And the jeers White received from the home crowd at the end of pregame introductions may have fueled the Fever players’ energy before and after the tilt.
“I hated that our fans booed her before the game,” Clark said. “It made me a little sick, to be honest.”
The Fever are rounding into form as potential championship contenders. But their success on the floor has often been fueled by controversy.
First there was an uproar about the fever that could be bypassed WNBA Injury Report Rules as star quarterback Caitlin Clark went through a back injury early in the season. Then Phoenix Mercury ahead Alyssa Thomas put her hand on Clark’s throat during the June 24 game without committing a real-time foul; The WNBA reviewed the play and retroactively called a flagrant foul 2 and suspended Thomas for the game, while Thomas reported receiving online harassment and death threats through the play.
Cunningham was a lightning rod herself, because comments she made in an ESPN story published in July in which she said she did not support transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. White, Clark and others with the fever have since been asked to respond to Cunningham’s beliefs and other voices around the league weighed also.
Within half an hour of White’s pregame comments, Fever team president Kelly Krauskopf issued a statement of support for her head coach.
“Coach White has done a tremendous job leading the Fever, and for the second straight season we are in a great position for the playoffs,” Krauskopf said. “She kept our team focused and united, all the time under the strongest spotlight our team and our league have ever experienced. She has the full support of management.”
In a bitter coincidence, just a day earlier White stood on the Fever’s practice court and spoke eloquently about how her team deals with the non-basketball discourse that has built up over the course of the season. There were a lot of people trying to divide the team, she said at the time, noting that the Fever did a good job keeping those vibes out of the locker room.
After Tuesday’s win, White reiterated that she believes the league has been “hijacked, for all the wrong reasons.” She said the WNBA is sometimes an “easy target” and has grown “tired” of outside actors influencing narratives around the league. She hoped, she said, to start discussing results on the field full time.
“They played unbelievable basketball,” White said of her team. “That’s why I’d like to stop talking about other s—.”
But sometimes the clouds get very thick and thunder cannot be avoided.
