Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White did not take questions during her media session ahead of her team’s 106-92 win over the New York Liberty on Tuesday. Instead, White delivered an impassioned statement in which she defended her relationship with her players, revised her opinion on DiJonai Carrington’s “egregious” flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham and said that “the hate, the fear-mongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win.”
Carrington’s Flagrant 2 foul on Cunningham during Indiana’s win over the Chicago Sky on Saturday was the latest high-profile incident in what has been a tumultuous summer for the Fever and the entire WNBA. White was caught in the fallout when she received significant criticism online for her postgame comments about the incident.
After Saturday’s game, White said that Carrington is going to “play her butt off” and “nobody is gonna go walking in for a layup.” She added that she did not oppose the hard foul, and that she didn’t think Carrington “intentionally went for” Cunningham’s neck.
On Tuesday, White said that after watching replays of Carrington’s foul, she thought it was “egregious.”
Here are White’s full pregame comments:
“This isn’t necessarily for people that are in this room. This is more for an online community that is trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist. Trying to create a fabrication or distortion of who I am and what I’m about. Our player’s success, our player’s health and wellness, our player’s safety, is always a top priority for me. One of the things I pride myself on is my relationships with players.
For those who have anything to say about the play in the last game. 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 on replay, you can see that. I didn’t have that in real time. 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.
“It’s a shame that we can’t have an opportunity to talk about what great basketball they’re playing. Beacuse they are f—ing playing. The reality is with me, I will always lead with love. I will always lead with grace. I will always lead with humilty. And I will always lead with integrity. It doesn’t mean I will always get it right. I’m also human.
“The hate, the fear-mongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win. It won’t win. We are united. We are connected. We will not be divided. 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. Humilty will win. And kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.”
White, who was booed by Fever fans before tipoff, said after the win that she “sat with” the outside noise over the past few days and felt compelled to speak. Specifically, she wanted to respond to attacks on her character.
“People presume to know who I am and have no idea,” White said. “These women are playing incredible basketball, and they deserve to be celebrated for that… It’s everybody else that wants to divide us, our team and our league. As somebody who’s been around for a long, long time in this league, I’m tired of it.”
Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham voice support for White
White received a technical foul for arguing with the officials during Saturday’s game after a controversial technical foul was given to Caitlin Clark for making contact with an official. It was the eighth technical foul of the season for Clark, but it was quickly rescinded upon league review. Had the foul stood, Clark would have served a one-game suspension and missed Tuesday night’s game. Instead, Clark suited up and finished with 22 points and 10 assists for her 19th career 20-point, 10-assist game (more than any other franchise), while Kelsey Mitchell poured in 28 points to extend her record 20-point streak to 17 games.
Clark said she spoke with White before the game and told her the team would win for her. She also criticized the fans for booing White.
“I can assure you there was no way we were losing this game tonight, and I told her that before the game. There was no way we were losing this game for her,” Clark said. “It’s tough. That’s my head coach. I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick, to be honest… At the end of the day, that’s our head coach, and we’re gonna ride for her and we’re always gonna have her back, and that’s never gonna tear our locker room apart. I just love her and I feel for her.”
Cunningham, who has been embroiled in her own controversy in recent weeks due to her comments about transgender athletes, did not speak pre-game on Tuesday, but did talk after chipping in 12 points off the bench in the victory.
“We have each other’s backs. Coach loves us,” Cunningham said. “She didn’t see the clip [of the Carrington flagrant foul]. At the end of the day, she didn’t see the clip. DiJonai, she’s a hell of a player, she’s a great defender. [White] coached her for however many years up in Connecticut, so give her her flowers and she didn’t see it, and that’s OK. Me and Steph are great, Steph is great with all of us. It’s really the outside noise that’s trying to distract us, but we’re good.”
Fever president Kelly Krauskopf said in a statement that White has the “full support” of team leadership.
“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 said before Tuesday’s game. “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.”
Carrington, for her part, spoke at length about the incident on Monday prior to the Sky’s loss to the Seattle Storm. She said that the foul was “never intentional,” but declined to explain her since-deleted social media post in which she wrote “WHITE PRIVILEGE” while tagging the Fever’s team account from the locker room following the ejection.
Fever moving up WNBA standings
Amid all of the drama, the Fever have been playing their best basketball of the season. They’ve won nine of their last 12 games to take sole possession of fourth place at 21-12. They would host a first-round playoff series if the season ended today, are on track to record the best offensive rating in league history (115) and are four wins from a single-season franchise record.
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With her team playing at such a high level, White wants the focus to shift to basketball.
“We need to focus on this group and how they’re playing basketball right now, because they’ve been playing incredible basketball,” White said. “I’d like to stop talking about the other shit.”
