The worst-kept secret in the WNBA finally became official on Friday, as the Indiana Fever hired Stephanie White as the team’s new coach. White, who just parted ways with the Connecticut Sun earlier this offseason, has a long history with the Fever as both a player and coach.
Hiring White is the latest move in a transformative offseason for the Fever, who have also hired Amber Cox as their new chief operating officer and general manager, and brought Kelly Krauskopf, the team’s original president and general manager, back as the new president of basketball and business operations.
A total overhaul of the front office and coaching department is a clear sign that the organization, which was a laughing stock from 2017-22, is not messing around any longer. With No. 1 overall picks Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark leading the way, the Fever made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016, and are already aiming higher.
Here’s why White is the perfect coach to lead Clark and the Fever into a new era.
Connection to the state and franchise
White was actually born in Danville, Illinois — right across the border from Indiana — but she’s had a connection to the Hoosier State her entire life. She was named Indiana Miss Basketball and the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 1995 during her senior season at Seeger High School, then went on to star at Purdue.
A multiple-time First Team All-Big Ten performer, White led the Boilermakers to their first and only national championship in 1999 and racked up a number of honors along the way, including the Wade Trophy for the best upperclass women’s basketball player in the country.
In 2000, she was selected by the Fever in the expansion draft and spent the last five years of her playing career with the team. While she was still playing, she began her coaching career at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. A few years and stops later, she came back to the Fever as an assistant coach. After four seasons in that role, including a title in 2012, White took over as head coach for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
White said in a statement that she is “incredibly proud and honored to return home to Indiana” and said she wants to “help deliver another WNBA title to the greatest basketball fans in the world.”
While hiring a coach that hails from the same state as the team is not a prerequisite for success, it certainly helps. White understands the city and state, and knows firsthand how much basketball means in Indiana. Furthermore, she’s rejoining an organization that she has spent extensive time with, both on and off the court, which will help ease her transition. Here, it’s key to note that Krauskopf was in charge during all of White’s previous time with the Fever.
All told, those connections will only give White more motivation to succeed.
The resumé
Christie Sides was a solid player and coach in her own right, but she was still learning on the job. The Fever job was her first experience as a head coach, and while she improved as the 2024 campaign went along, there were times where she seemed a bit out of her depth.
With more time, Sides could have grown into a championship-level coach, and perhaps she eventually will in another situation. The Fever, understandably, were not willing to wait and see when they have a generational talent in Clark and a young roster with plenty of potential.
White, on the other hand, was an elite player at the college level and had a real WNBA career, which matters to players. Even more so in this situation considering White was a star point guard, which will help her connect with Clark.
Plus, she’s proven that she can win on this level, with both the Fever and the Sun.
In four seasons in charge of a WNBA team — 2015-16 with the Fever and 2023-24 with the Sun — White has never had a losing season and has never missed the playoffs. She’s won at least 20 games three times, has a 92-56 (.622 winning percentage) record, made three semifinals and one Finals appearance.
Sides simply cannot match up with White’s resumé on either front. White’s arrival doesn’t guarantee anything for the Fever, but having a coach who has won a title as an assistant and led multiple teams on deep playoff runs gives them a much better chance to compete.
Clark is all-in
When the Fever announced the news that White had been hired, Caitlin Clark was immediately in the Instagram comments with an enthusiastic response: “Fevvvvv shooowwwwwww,” the Rookie of the Year wrote.
During the season, Clark was even more verbose when asked about White.
“She has obviously called a lot of my games all throughout college, and I just think she has a really great basketball mind,” Clark said. “I think she’s done a great job calling college games, great to see her on NBA games. I think what she’s done is just, she’s a trailblazer honestly. I think she’s always been somebody that’s been supportive of my game, and it’s been fun to talk to her at shootarounds throughout my college career and she’s always been really supportive.”
Without even holding a practice or coaching a game, White already has Clark’s trust, and that is perhaps the most important factor in this entire equation. In order to win at a high level, your star player has to be bought into what the coach is preaching.
“I spoke with Caitlin last night, and I think just overall excitement,” White told ESPN after the move became official. “I have been watching Caitlin play since she was an eighth grader, when I was coaching in the college realm and covering her games in college, and just an exciting time for me, very excited to be working with her and this young team.
“She’s a student of the game. She loves the game of basketball. She has been so great in how she’s handled all of the attention. She just wants to play. She just wants to win, and I’m looking forward to coaching players like that and this young franchise, this young team, and taking our next steps.”
Clark set all sorts of records in her first WNBA season and put up 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game while playing for a coach who many believe didn’t always utilize her properly. It’s scary to think how much better Clark could be in her sophomore campaign between her own development, a full offseason with White and a new offensive system.
