The Indiana Fever have spent much of the 2026 season trying to navigate a new level of outside attention that can easily overshadow what happens on the floor. Now, following their latest win, Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham have set the record straight on the outside noise.
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The Fever won their latest game 106-92 against the New York Liberty, and afterwards, Cunningham backed her head coach, Stephanie White, explaining that the players have refused to let the noise fracture their locker room.
“Coach loves us. And you know what, DiJonai [Carrington], she is a hell of a player. She’s a great defender. And so she coached her for I don’t know how many years up in Connecticut. So give her her flowers, and she didn’t see it. And that’s OK.” she said during the post-game media availability.
“Me and Steph are great. Steph is great with all of us. And so it’s really the outside noise that’s trying to distract us, but we’re good.”
Sophie Cunningham was involved in the play that sparked the latest wave of criticism against White. During the Fever’s game against the Chicago Sky, she was knocked down by Carrington in a flagrant foul, and in the aftermath, White came to the defense of her former player.
“One of the things about Nai is that she’s gonna play her butt off, man. She’s gonna compete. Nobody’s gonna go walking in for a layup. And so I don’t oppose the hard foul. But I also don’t think that she intentionally went for the neck.”
Stephanie White made that assessment because she was familiar with Carrington’s aggressive play style. After all, the Fever coach was the head coach of the Connecticut Sun before coming to Indiana, and during the 2023 and 2024 seasons she coached Carrington, who also played for the Sun. In fact, Carrington broke out as a standout talent under White.
Another moment that stood out from the post-game conference was Caitlin Clark’s bringing attention to how White’s earlier defense led to her being booed before the game against the Liberty. The superstar guard made it clear that she was extremely disappointed in the fans when the moment occurred.
“I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick, to be honest. And you can disagree and this and that, and I get it. It’s professional sports. People are going to boo. But at the end of the day, that’s our head coach, and we’re going to ride for her, and we’re always going to have our back, and it’s never going to tear our locker room apart.”
Besides passionate fans, figures outside the WNBA have also criticized White for her initial stance on the DiJonai Carter incident. Indiana’s Lieutenant Governor publicly called for the team to fire Stephanie White for offering a defense for Carrington right after the game.
However, with Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham now stating their support behind White, Indiana appears to be focused on keeping the outside noise exactly where it belongs: outside the locker room.