Despite Stephanie White’s insistence that her tense on-court interactions with Caitlin Clark should not be viewed through the lens of controversy, criticism of her coaching style is only growing louder as we approach the Round 1 finale in the Aces-Fever series. White has also been criticized for her postgame comments about Indiana’s defense, as it appeared that Clark had a somewhat different assessment of the situation.
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White’s comments about her therapist’s involvement in helping her deal with the stress of the job also didn’t sit too well with WNBA analyst Linda Cohn, who has suggested that although White may be a good coach, being the Indiana HC may not be the best possible job for her.
“And I saw it on Stephanie White’s face on the sideline. She was so happy for Caitlin Clark in that performance (game 2). So I just don’t understand; Stephanie White is such a great coach. She has a great resume. This just may not be the best fit for her with the Indiana Fever,” Cohn said in a clip posted by Yahoo Sports, while they replied to an earlier post by Brickcenter, which highlighted the difference in opinion between Caitlin Clark and Stephanie White.
“If I’m a head coach, and we’ve seen this guys in other sports, if you don’t want to answer a question. You say, ‘Listen, we can get to that in the offseason; we can get to that another time. Right now, I’m preparing my team to face the defending champs in the first game of our best-of-three series.’ But that sort of set the tone; that’s when I knew something was not right.”
“And then the way the team came out flat as a pancake throughout that game and game one showed me a lot, and then in the post-game, which you refer to, Jason. I couldn’t believe it. Stephanie White says, ‘Well, you know, we’re playing against the defending champs; we’re on their home court.’ And you could see Caitlin Clark swallowing and eating her towel, covering her face like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe my coach said this.’ Even Aliyah Boston, who was in the middle of those two, had some crazy body language, but how do you say that we’re supposed to win.”
“Then later in that same post-game interview, talking about, ‘Well, we had to be humble; we have to be humbled before we win.’ If she’s referring to social media, people think that Caitlin Clark is humble, as she has been watching all season. Caitlin Clark has always attempted to be humble, she’s been the target constantly. And if it’s not her head coach, who sometimes does express incredible joy, like last night. Stephanie was great; she got out of the way of the big three, and she let her best players play.”
Much was made of Indiana’s locker room dynamics, especially between Clark and White after the Fever’s humiliating loss in Game 1. Clark appeared frustrated as White took her off the court in the third quarter, with the Fever still trailing. Then, during the postgame press conference, the imbalance in Clark and White’s chemistry was there for everyone to see.
However, White addressed the elephant in the room before the next game.
“Look, I think we both understand that social media noise doesn’t really have anything to do with what we do. I think, you know, the biggest thing for us is staying focused on our team and staying focused on what we can do to get better,” White said during the press conference before Game 2.
“And yeah, I mean, some of this offensive stuff wasn’t working. You know, sometimes you got to get knocked in the mouth to figure things out. So, you know, all of those things can be true. And all those things can be true without there being a controversy.”
And it seems that White was right here. The Game 1 loss acted as a wake-up call for the Fever. A’ja Wilson dropped 38 points and 16 rebounds, and the Aces restricted the Fever to just 45% shooting from the field and just 39% from beyond the arc.
Las Vegas also successfully contained Clark and Mitchell, limiting them to a combined 27 points.
Indiana roared back in game 2, showing a lot more intensity than in game 1. Caitlin dropped a historic performance, scoring 27 points and 13 assists.
Friction between the team’s star player and the head coach is nothing new in basketball. The Indiana Fever would do well to keep those differences aside, if there are any differences at all, and focus on winning Game 3.