White rips critics, backed by Clark, Cunningham after fans booplayFever coach Stephanie White defends players in fiery pregame statement (1:19)Alexa Philippou
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White gave an impassioned statement to reporters before Tuesday night’s 106-92 win over the New York Liberty in which she proclaimed, “The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win.”
White, who is in her second year as coach of the Fever, was responding in part to what she called “an online community that’s trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist” after some felt she did not have Sophie Cunningham’s back after the Fever guard was on the receiving end of a flagrant foul by Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington on Saturday.
“We are united. We are connected. We will not be divided,” White stated Tuesday. “Every day, these women put their ass on the line. Every day, when they go low, we go high. Love will win, grace will win, humility will win and kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them.
“Everybody else can go to hell.”
White pounded her fist on a table multiple times during her remarks before leaving the room without taking questions from reporters.
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Carrington’s foul on Saturday was upgraded to a flagrant 2, and she was ejected from the game. Some fans took issue with White’s postgame remarks about the Sky guard, with the lieutenant governor of Indiana even calling for White to be fired. White was also booed during Tuesday night’s pregame introductions at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
White, who coached Carrington for two seasons with the Connecticut Sun, had stated Saturday that officials made the right call against Carrington but also praised her competitive nature.
“Look, it was a hard foul,” White stated on Saturday about the foul. “It did happen, and I thought it was the right call. One of the things about [Carrington] is that she’s going to play her butt off, man. She’s going to compete. Nobody’s going to go walking in for a layup. I don’t oppose the hard foul, but I also don’t think that she intentionally went for the neck.”
White stated on Tuesday that she didn’t see the Carrington foul in real time or before her postgame news conference Saturday. She took issue with critics suggesting she doesn’t “100% always have my players’ back.”
“Our players’ success, our players’ health and wellness, our players’ safety is always a top priority for me,” she stated. “One of the things I pride myself on is my relationships with players. I didn’t see the play in real time. I went straight to a press conference. I thought the play got called right. Thankfully, Sophie’s OK. Was it egregious? Absolutely. When you have a chance to watch that over and over and over on replay, you can see that. I didn’t have that in real time.”
White added: “I take personally any suggestions that I don’t 100% always have my players’ back. I ride with them 10 toes down all the time, all the time. They know that.”
Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham, left, stated she shares a “great” relationship with head coach Stephanie White and that the Fever are “always going to have her back.” AP Photo/Michael ConroyCunningham and Fever star Caitlin Clark backed White following Tuesday’s game, with Clark asserting “there was no way we were losing this game tonight.”
“Our locker room in there, it’s tight, and we have each other’s backs,” Cunningham stated. “Coach loves us. She didn’t see the clip … and that’s OK. Me and Steph are great. Steph is great with all of us, and so it’s really the outside noise that’s trying to distract us, but we’re good.”
Cunningham and White shared an embrace in the media room in between their news conferences.
Clark, meanwhile, took issue with the fan reaction toward White before tipoff.
“It’s tough,” Clark stated. “Like, that’s my head coach. I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick, to be honest. … That’s our head coach, and we’re going to ride for her, and we’re always going to have her back.
“I just love her, and I feel for her because I know it can be a lot of times, and she does a great job a lot of times blocking [the outside noise] out. But there’s other moments where it can get under your skin, and that’s just being human, and that’s just life.”
White has been in and around the WNBA since 1999, first as a player for the Charlotte Sting and Fever and then as an assistant and now head coach. She served on Lin Dunn’s staff in Indiana from 2011 to 2014 before her first stint as head coach for the franchise in 2015-16.
Fever president Kelly Krauskopf issued a statement in support of White on Tuesday.
“Coach White has done a tremendous job leading the Fever and for the second-consecutive season, has us in great position for a playoff push,” Krauskopf stated in the statement. “She has kept our team focused and united, all while under the brightest spotlight our team and our league have ever experienced. She has the full support of leadership.”
The Fever (21-12) are 9-3 over their past 12 games and in position to potentially host playoff games, but they have been at the center of scrutiny and sometimes controversy since Clark’s high-profile arrival in 2024.
Most recently, Cunningham was featured in an ESPN article last month in which she stated transgender girls and women should be barred from girls’ and women’s sports, setting off a storm of conversation about what the WNBA’s policy toward transgender athletes should be.
“It’s a shame that we can’t have an opportunity to talk about what great basketball they’re playing because they are f—ing playing,” White stated before Tuesday’s game. “The reality is, with me, I will always lead with love. I will always lead with grace. I will always lead with humility, and I will always lead with integrity. Doesn’t mean I’ll always get it right. I’m also human.”
Clark and Cunningham stated the team wanted to play well for White and for each other Tuesday night, and they did just that, scoring 100 points for the 15th game this year, a single-season WNBA record, and leading by as many as 21. The Fever also shot 16-for-25 from the 3-point arc, the second-highest 3-point percentage (minimum 25 attempts) in any game in WNBA history.
Guard Kelsey Mitchell recorded her 18th 25-point game of the season, fourth most in league history, and Clark notched her ninth 20-point, 10-assist game, also a single-season WNBA record.
The result marked a second convincing win this summer over the Liberty, the 2024 WNBA champs, after Indiana previously beat New York by 20 in mid-July.
“We really did play with joy, and with everything going on, that’s kind of been hard to do,” Cunningham stated. “Tonight was the night that we all just clicked and we had fun. We did it for Steph and we did it for everyone in the locker room.”
Added White: “I’m just proud of them, man. We’ve got great humans in that locker room. We’ve got great competitors in that locker room. We’ve got mature women in that locker room who know what it is, and I’m thankful for them.”
