After DiJonai Carrington landed a flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham, Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White offered a neutral perspective. While agreeing with the official’s call to upgrade the foul to a Flagrant 2, she also said, “I don’t think that DiJonai intentionally came out to get her across the neck like she did.” However, that stance didn’t resonate with a big part of the fanbase, and it’s something she found out the very next game against the New York Liberty when they booed her.

However, the backlash started right after her statement on Sunday, and White herself gave an emotionally charged speech during the pre-game media availability. So, after hearing what she had to say and seeing the reception the Fever coach received at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, analyst Stephen A. Smith did not hold back.

“‘We will go high. Love, grace, humility will win.’ And then you tell everybody to ‘go to hell.’ You think that’s going to work for you, Coach White?” he said on The Stephen A. Smith Show.

“The reality of the situation is none of that stuff will win if it’s left up to you, Stephanie White. Because you’re not handling it right. You playing right into their hands because you’re not embracing the reality of the tense situation that the WNBA, and especially you as the coach of the Indiana Fever, is involved in.”

“There are folks in Indiana at a home game booing you. You ain’t the road team, you the home team, you the home coach, and they booing you,” he added.

As the backlash from the fans continued to grow, Stephanie White used her pregame media availability to make it clear that she would always have her players’ backs.

As reports of the coach getting booed by the home crowd came out, both Caitlin Clark and Cunningham proved they had their coach’s back. They defended White in the post-game presser after the 106-92 win over New York, with Cunningham insisting that there had been “a lot of outside noise” but that the locker room remained “tight” and that “Coach loves us.”

Clark also acknowledged that White is human and has “feelings,” drawing from her own experience of dealing with intense public scrutiny.

But Smith was not done there. While acknowledging that Cunningham and Clark could “speak up for you all they want to,” he questioned whether their support could overcome what he saw as a bigger issue with Stephanie White’s handling of the Carrington incident.

White has insisted that she missed the play in real time; however, she acknowledged that the contact was “egregious” and that she understood why it was upgraded to a Flagrant 2.

“How are you the head coach, on the sideline, during the play, covering the game, or coaching the game, and you didn’t see the play?” Smith asked.

“What you not watching? We saw it. You coaching the game, up and down the court. It’s your job to coach the game, watch the game. How did you not see the play?”

For now, the Fever have made it clear that Stephanie White still has the support of her locker room. However, with the boos from the home crowd and Smith now questioning her handling of the controversy, the scrutiny is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.