The Indiana Fever’s loss to the Minnesota Lynx in the season-finale game has instigated a lot of conversations, and the relationship between Stephanie White and Caitlin Clark is one of them. Clark’s apparent frustration while talking to Stephanie White during the Washington Mystics game, and a few days later with assistant coach Briann January, has raised questions for Linda Cohn.
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Amid all the conversations surrounding Clark’s relationship with her head coach, the Fever star’s amicable relationship with Lynx’s head coach Cheryl Reeve, despite their short dispute during Fever’s 96-77 win over the Lynx, has prompted Cohn to speak out.
“Can you imagine Caitlin Clark playing for a coach like that? Because even if Cheryl Reeve does the tough love on her, Caitlin respects someone like that,” the former ESPN host said, speaking with Maurice Drake Jr. on the Keep The Vision podcast. “That’s the difference. And she is coachable.”
During the 96-77 win over the Lynx on Sep. 22, Clark and Reeve shared a heated courtside moment. Reeve was demanding a call when Clark bumped her during the game.
“I know Cheryl tried to challenge that call where I bumped her with my shoulder good. I told her that’s a great bump,” Clark said after the game. “I didn’t bump her super hard. If you’re gonna be physical, I’m gonna be physical right back.”
Minutes later, cameras captured both Reeve and the Fever star smiling courtside. Before the game, WNBA photographer Bri Lewerke also posted a candid picture of Clark and Reeve.
Reeve has arguably been the WNBA’s best coach in the last few years. In the last three years, the Lynx have been the best regular-season team in the league. Had it not been for unfortunate circumstances, they would have won championships. Reeve almost universally commands respect in the league as far as her coaching is concerned.
“For people like, ‘Oh, Linda, Maurice, you’re always defending Caitlin Clark. She can’t have her best friend as a coach.’ That’s not what we’re saying. She’s very coachable. But the person that coaches her, she has to respect,” Cohn added. “She can’t have a better basketball mind than the head coach.”
While Clark, like every other player in the league, has a lot of respect for Reeve, there hasn’t been any significant development to suggest Clark has lost respect for her head coach. Despite the outside narrative, Clark has often defended her coach.
In August, Clark stood up for White when fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse arena booed the head coach. It was backlash for initially defending DiJonai Carrington after the Sky star’s hard foul on Sophie Cunningham.
“That’s my head coach…we’re going to ride for her, and we’re always going to have her back… I just love her,” Clark had said, adding that she wanted to win the game for her head coach after watching fans’ behavior.
Cohn has been critical of White’s coaching style for quite some time now. After the season-finale loss to the Lynx, she slammed the Fever coach for not preparing her players for Minnesota’s potential retaliation.
After the first-game loss in the back-to-back, retaliation from the Lynx was expected, yet the Fever performed as if they were unaware of how Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve and her team would approach the game.
Cohn’s added she wasn’t always pessimistic about White’s leadership in Indiana.
“And I didn’t see it coming. I got to be honest with you – I thought when Stephanie White came over, I thought it was going to work. I did. And then it didn’t,” she added.
White’s tenure hasn’t been too bad in Indiana. In her first season as the Fever’s head coach, she took her team to the second round of the playoffs. The Fever would have been in the Finals had they won Game 5 against the Aces in overtime.
Last year, she didn’t have a healthy roster. Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and others were ruled out before the playoffs. This year, White has a healthy roster. It would be too early to count her out. The Fever might just complete their semifinal revenge by taking out the defending champions, the Las Vegas Aces, in the first round.