Fever coach Stephanie White pushes back on online narratives: 'We will not be divided.'
The Fever coach delivered a pointed pregame statement about her players, team unity and online narratives before Indiana hosted New York. Kelly Krauskopf also issued a statement.
Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White talks to reporters roughly an hour before each game. The WNBA requires both head coaches to be available for questions before and after each game.
White, however, had something she wanted to share.
Before the Fever hosted the New York Liberty Tuesday to Gainbridge Fieldhouse (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), White spoke for two minutes and 15 seconds and didn’t take any questions.
White, now in her second year as Fever head coach, wanted to push back on negative narratives about this team, its togetherness, and reinforce that she always has her players’ backs.
Here’s White’s full statement.
This isn’t necessarily for those people that are in this room. This is more for an online community that’s trying to create narratives that simply don’t exist, trying to create a fabrication or distortion of who I am, of what I’m about.
Our players’ success, our players’ health and wellness, our players’ 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 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 — because they are fucking playing.
The reality is, with me, I will always lead with love, I will always lead with grace, I will always lead with humility — and I will always lead with integrity.
Doesn’t mean I’ll always get it right. I’m also human. The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league WILL NOT WIN. [fist pounding on the table for emphasis] 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. Humility will win and kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.
This statement comes one game after Chicago’s DiJonai Carrington was ejected for her hard foul on Sophie Cunningham was upgraded to a Flagrant-2. It was a blow to the head, both unnecessary and excessive.
In that same game, Caitlin Clark later received a technical foul. However, it was soon rescinded by the league.
You can watch White’s full comments in the video below
Shortly after the press conference with White, the team issued a statement from team president Kelly Krauskopf:
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. 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.
It’s not immediately known what motivated the statements — first from White and then from Krauskopf. There has been constant discourse online, especially on social media, surrounding the team. But that is out of their control.
However, White did make her beliefs and intentions clear, and Krauskopf reiterated that White “has the full support of leadership.”
About 90 minutes before tip-off, Clark was asked about blocking out the noise and keeping the focus on the task at hand.
Honestly, I was just thinking about that when I was warming up out there. It’s fun to see how excited and how much fun my teammates have with one another because I feel like a lot of the narratives sometimes are the opposite of that. And obviously, I don’t expect people to understand if you’re not in our locker room, how would you ever know?
I feel like this locker room is a very tight-knit group and we just have fun with one another. We love showing up and getting to compete every single day. We’re 20-12, but I feel like we could be even better than that. And we have potential to grow even more. And I think that’s what’s the exciting part. We’ve had moments where we can really feel like we’re a title contender. And if we can continue to play like that, obviously, you need some things to kind of roll your way. But we have all the pieces in our locker room and that’s, I think, how we carry ourselves.
So it’s just fun getting to be around this group every single day and the coaching staff. And more than anything, we’re going to have each other’s backs.
Every day presents a new challenge, but you’re going to have a lot of fun with it. Some days are going to be great. Some days aren’t going to be as great. You just keep getting back up and keep fighting. But I think this group has done a really good job of being resilient and all that.”
The Fever (20-12) have 12 regular-season games remaining, and just eight before the World Cup break.
