<\/div>\n\u201cLove will win. Grace will win. Humility will win, and kindness will win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand by them. I\u2019ll always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
White then walked away without taking any questions.<\/p>\n
But she was far from alone in her fight.<\/p>\n
The backlash spilled into Gainbridge Fieldhouse before Tuesday\u2019s game, with White booed by sections of the home crowd.<\/p>\n
That reception did not sit well with Caitlin Clark.<\/p>\n
And after the Fever responded with a victory over the Liberty, Clark revealed she had made a promise to her coach before the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can assure you there was no way we were losing this game tonight, and I told her that before the game,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – AUGUST 11: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever speaks to head coach Stephanie White of the Indiana Fever during the first half against the New York Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on August 11, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Justin Casterline\/Getty Images\/AFP (Photo by Justin Casterline \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA \/ Getty Images via AFP)<\/span>Source: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cThere was no way we were losing this game for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough. That\u2019s my head coach and I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day that\u2019s our head coach and we\u2019re going to ride for her and we\u2019re always going to have her back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s never going to tear our locker room apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The extraordinary scenes came after days of mounting scrutiny surrounding White and the Fever following Saturday\u2019s fiery win over the Chicago Sky.<\/p>\n
Carrington was ejected after being assessed a Flagrant 2 foul for heavy contact on Cunningham, with White asked about the incident following the game.<\/p>\n
White, who previously coached Carrington at the Connecticut Sun, said at the time she believed officials made the correct call but did not think her former player had deliberately targeted Cunningham\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n
<\/amp-ima-video><\/p>\nAnthony gives Ingles hilarious nickname | 00:30<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n\u201cOne of the things about her is that she\u2019s gonna play her butt off, man,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s gonna compete. Nobody\u2019s gonna go walking in for a layup. And so, I don\u2019t oppose the hard foul.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I also don\u2019t think that she intentionally went for the neck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those comments drew the ire of Beckwith, who accused White of siding with an opposition player over one of her own and publicly called for the Fever to make a coaching change.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo solid coach would ever take the side of the opposing team\u2019s player who committed a flagrant foul on one of your own players,\u201d Beckwith posted on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerrible coaching! The Fever need to defend their players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fever need to let Stephanie White go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) celebrates a blocked shot with forward Monique Billings (25) against the New York Liberty in the second half of a WNBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/Michael Conroy)<\/span>Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe Fever quickly threw their support behind White.<\/p>\n
Team president Kelly Krauskopf said White had done a \u201ctremendous job\u201d leading Indiana and had kept the group together despite operating under an enormous spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has kept our team focused and united, all while under the brightest spotlight our team and our league have ever experienced,\u201d Krauskopf said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has the full support of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
White also clarified on Tuesday that she had not seen the Carrington foul clearly in real time before making her initial comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas it egregious? Absolutely,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a chance to watch that, over and over and over on replay, you can see that. I didn\u2019t have that in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark, however, made clear there was no suggestion from inside the Fever locker room that White had failed to support her players.<\/p>\n
The superstar guard revealed she had spoken privately with White earlier in the day as the pressure surrounding the coach continued to build.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to Steph earlier in the day too, and I think we forget a lot of times, we\u2019re human,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has feelings and there\u2019s moments that are really hard, and sometimes that\u2019s just the job you sign up for.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time it\u2019s okay to feel those emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark said her own experiences dealing with intense scrutiny had given her an understanding of what White was going through.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White cheers as the Indiana Fever plays the New York Liberty in the first half of a WNBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/Michael Conroy)<\/span>Source: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI told her, I\u2019ve been through the same thing,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been days where I\u2019ve been really upset, and you can have the thickest skin in the world, but sometimes it does get to you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our world is just like, we love to hate. We love to divide. Nobody wants to see each other succeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a really painful thing for myself to watch. I feel like we need to do a better job of uplifting each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Clark, Tuesday\u2019s performance was ultimately about sending a message of support to the coach who had spent the previous days under fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love her and I feel for her because I know it can be a lot at times,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe does a great job a lot of times of blocking it out but there\u2019s other moments where it can get under your skin and that\u2019s just being human and that\u2019s just life.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, we really just did it for her and we did it for each other and the girls in our locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEverybody else can go to hell.\u201d Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White has fired back after days of mounting criticism and calls for her sacking, delivering an impassioned defence of herself and her players as pressure surrounding the WNBA franchise continues to intensify. White used her pre-game media availability ahead of Tuesday\u2019s clash with the New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-257563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}