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Stephanie White, an accomplished WNBA coach, was given the on-court keys three months ago to the Indiana Fever, where she will coach the All-Star quartet of DeWanna Bonner, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark, and Kelsey Mitchell, as well as three-time WNBA champ Natasha Howard.
Away from the Fever, she is a basketball analyst for ESPN, calling men’s and women’s college basketball and the NBA. She recently sat down for an extended conversation with me on the Sports Media Podcast, where she addressed the dual roles of broadcasting and coaching the Fever.
It goes without saying that Caitlin Clark isn’t just an All-Star player. She’s the most famous women’s basketball player in America and one of the most well-known basketball players in the country, regardless of gender. How do you manage, and I don’t mean this pejoratively, the circus that will be around her?
I think first and foremost, she does an outstanding job of managing it all. She’s incredibly humble. She understands the big picture. So she views her celebrity with number one. But number two, she’s a Midwest person, and she is who she is. She tries to live her life in an authentic way. But she’s very much Taylor Swift 2.0.
From a coaching perspective, keep the main thing the main thing. Help her protect her peace and then help her continue to grow on the basketball court…
…How did you get into broadcasting?
I got lucky. I didn’t study broadcast journalism in college. I studied aviation for two years. That’s part of the reason that I went to Purdue. Then I changed to general communications. I was living in Chicago at the time (as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky), and a broadcaster who was calling games for the Sky, Eric Collins, gave me the name of (executives) Tim Sutton and Leon Schweir at the Big Ten Network, which was starting in Chicago. I got to talk to them and had a little audition. They said we’ll give you five or six games and see how you do. Five or six games turned into 50 events that first year. I’ve been doing it ever since.
The Fever are now considered one of the top four teams, at least based on the oddsmakers, to win the WNBA title. Is it realistic to say that this team is a title contender in 2025?
I think on paper, certainly. Our goal was to bring in players that can complement our big three…
How did you get to be the head coach of the Indiana Fever?
I was an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky, and I was asked to be the head coach for the Indiana Fever, so I took the job.
One of the things that often happens with great players is they make a jump from their rookie season to Year 2. In the WNBA, that often means getting stronger. What’s realistic in terms of Caitlin from Year 1 to Year 2?
She is stronger, first and foremost. She’s gotten a lot of self-awareness. She figured out right away that I need to get stronger, I can’t get knocked around as much. She’s done a great job of getting in the weight room and focusing on her strength, in terms of low center of gravity, time under tension, all of those things. I think the next step is efficiency. Not so many turnovers, higher field goal percentages.
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