INDIANAPOLIS, IN - AUGUST 09: Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White talks with Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham 8 during a WNBA, Basketball Damen, USA game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever on August 09, 2025 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN. Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire WNBA: AUG 09 Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon080925014
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - AUGUST 09: Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White talks with Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham 8 during a WNBA, Basketball Damen, USA game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever on August 09, 2025 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN. Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire WNBA: AUG 09 Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon080925014
Despite Indiana Fever’s latest 106-92 blowout win over the New York Liberty, talks keep brewing about Fever HC Stephanie White. And this time, media personality Dave Portnoy took the mic.
“The (Fever) players get attacked and blamed for anything,” Portnoy said, per a clip he posted on X on August 12. “So, we want a coach who has our players’ and our team’s and our fans’ backs 100%... It’s the Fever vs the world, and you gotta get on board.”
Portnoy’s response came after White’s fiery pregame speech in the Fever vs Liberty game. The coach strongly affirmed that she rides with her players “10 toes down all the time,” and went on about her own work ethic.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - JULY 18: Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham 8 talks with her team mates during a break in the action during a WNBA, Basketball Damen, USA game between the New York Liberty and the Indiana Fever on July 18, 2026 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN. Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire WNBA: JUL 18 New York Liberty at Indiana Fever EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon071826072
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - JULY 18: Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham 8 talks with her team mates during a break in the action during a WNBA, Basketball Damen, USA game between the New York Liberty and the Indiana Fever on July 18, 2026 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN. Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire WNBA: JUL 18 New York Liberty at Indiana Fever EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon071826072
It all boils down to Chicago Sky star DiJonai Carrington’s Flagrant 2 foul on Fever’s Sophie Cunningham on August 8. Many fans believed White didn’t defend Cunningham enough after the “hard foul”, including Portnoy. White even got booed in the game against Liberty.
But since she mainly focused on Fever’s locker room culture, her leading the team with “grace, love and integrity”, Portnoy believed it wasn't about any of those. Per him, White should’ve just properly apologised or defended Cunningham enough in the first place.
And what makes it even more interesting is that Fever’s star player, Caitlin Clark, also took White’s side in this.
Caitlin Clark Backed Up Stephanie White
The baseline is that the coach didn’t stand up enough against the heavy physicality her players face nearly on a daily basis. Portnoy and many others could protest just as much, but the Fever’s franchise player had to say what she said.
“I think we forget a lot of times, like, we're human, and she has feelings," Clark said in the postgame conference. “I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick… It's professional sports. People are going to boo, but at the end of the day, that's our head coach…”
Regardless of what Portnoy believed the firm focus should’ve been, Clark went ahead and concluded that the players would “ride for her”, “have her back”, and never let the locker room fall into shambles.
But do you think it was ever about the locker room, though? Let us know in the comments.
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Written by
Deblina Roy