“I always lead with love…everyone else can go to hell.”
Prior to the Indiana Fever’s 106-92 win over the New York Liberty on Tuesday night, an angry Fever head coach Stephanie White tried to refute what she described as fabricated narratives about her.
“White used the entirety of her pre-game presser to go on what was, in large part, an unhinged rant, blasting critics who accused her of defending Chicago Sky forward DiJonai Carrington after she flagrantly fouled Fever guard Sophie Cunningham,” Breitbart News explained.
White stormed out of the press conference venue after the two-minute, somewhat contradictory diatribe, which was at least partially from a prepared statement, without taking any questions.
White’s crash-out comes a few days Indiana Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith took to X (formerly Twitter) to contend that the Fever “need to let Stephanie White go. No solid coach would ever take the side of the opposing team’s player who committed a flagrant foul on one of your own players. Terrible coaching! The Fever need to defend their players.”
White did not mention any politicians, but in the table-banging rant, she condemned an online community for “trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist” and engaging in “fear-mongering” and “divisiveness” instead of focusing on great WNBA basketball.
White, who maintained that player safety is a top priority, belatedly admitted that the Carrington foul was “egregious.”
White also inexplicably claimed that she did not see the foul “in real time,” even though she was either sitting or standing a few feet from the action, not to mention having access to video replays and plenty of time to review them – especially since the play occurred in the first quarter.
“if that’s the case, it raises important questions about why White commented on the incident at all. Moreover, why would she reflexively defend an opponent over her own player?,” Breitbart News wondered.
Watch the media availability video below and draw your own conclusions:
As alluded to above, White’s first inclination was to provide what might amount to an alibi for Carrington similar to what she provided for Phoenix Mercury Forward Alyssa Thomas who appeared to throat-punch Fever superstar Caitlin Clark during a June 24 game.
Both of these incidents became national stories.
According to White in the tirade that included an F-bomb and during which she accused others of “trying to hijack our league,” she declared that “I will always lead with love…kindness will win…I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.”
By hijackers, is she including Fever fans throughout the county who buy tickets and merchandise and caused TV ratings to surge? Is she disappointed that the once-obscure league now has a many more followers with a lot of opinions?
And it isn’t clear if “them” refers to WNBA players collectively or just the Fever.
In general, the WNBA is a league where bullies claim to be victims, and where coaches (as enabled by the corporate media) tend to prioritize contentious identity politics over wins and losses.
The Fever coach also used the empty Michelle Obama platitude “when they go low, we go high.”
“Backing your players publicly, no matter what, is a commonly understood principle among coaches, but Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White apparently just got the memo,” Breitbart News quipped.
No reasonable person, however, expects Stephanie White to be an automatic rubber stamp for her players like New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone is for his, but WNBA fans have reason to be skeptical when she asserted that “I take personally any suggestions that I don’t 100% always have my players back.”
Ben Daniel of the WNBA-focused, eponymous podcast, disagreed with the coach. White’s “actions and empty words” – rather than any outside noise – – divide the locker room, he claimed:
“You have your players backs? Stephanie White, you literally stood up for Alyssa Thomas after she put a fist in Caitlyn Clark’s throat…you literally stood up for DiJonai Carrington after she put a forearm in Sophie Cunningham’s mouth…”
And as one YouTube commenter wrote, “Imagine getting paid to tell people to go to hell. Right after lecturing them about how kind you are.”
According to Dan Zaksheske of Outkick, “calling out White for not appropriately defending her own player during a postgame news conference is well within the bounds of normal sports criticism. Any male head coach would face the same critiques in a men’s professional league were the situation comparable. Blurring legitimate criticism together with hatred and divisiveness shifts attention away from the actual issue.”
As Ben Daniel similarly noted, male athletes receive far more criticism (and by extension, trolling) than WNBA players or coaches: “You guys have it easy.”
It’s only relatively recently, moreover, that Coach White has called out the incompetent, or worse, game referees who generally fail to call fouls while opposing players pummel Caitlin Clark as if it’s the Wrestlemania main event rather than a basketball game.
It also seems that – for now — that White finally realized the need to stop meddling and let Clark run the offense so that the entire roster can try to reach their full potential.
No outsider really knows what’s going on in any locker room, but in a post-game press conference on Tuesday night, both Cunningham and White insisted that the team is united behind their coach.
Fever management has also given Stephanie White a vote of confidence — which is not always decisive in the sports industry.
With the WNBA playoffs on the horizon, hopefully the Fever players can stay physically, mentally, and emotionally strong even if their head coach apparently is caught up in her feelings.
Outkick added the following observation about how the media predictably and perhaps hypocritically praised Stephanie White for her remarks:
“The WNBA and its media defenders have spent years celebrating players and coaches for speaking about subjects far beyond basketball. Politics, race, gender, social justice and culture were not treated as annoying distractions from the sport. They were presented as central features of what made the league and its players important. Now, after White delivers a prepared speech invoking hatred, fear mongering, divisiveness, love, grace, humility and Michelle Obama, the media reaction is that everyone really wishes outsiders would stop bringing non-basketball issues into the WNBA…”
In the victory over the Liberty, Caitlin Clark had 22 points and 10 assists while Kelsey Mitchell poured in 28 points. Cunningham went 4 for 5 from the three-point line. The Fever (now 21-12) resume play on Friday night against the Dallas Wings.
Lt. Gov. Beckwith is not the only elected official raising questions about the WNBA on-court conduct.
Last month, the Republican Study Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives asked WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to explain how the league intends to “hold players accountable for overly aggressive actions on the court, including towards Caitlin Clark.”
Engelbert, who seems to be intimidated by the mean girls who apparently run the league, essentially deflected in her response to Congress.
Just about anyone who has attended middle school or high school recognizes bullying for what it is – except perhaps Cathy Engelbert, the referees who she’s supposed to be supervising, and various coaches and players in the league.
And the WNBA still seems much more concerned about social media trolls than dangerous flagrant fouls.
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