DiJonai Carrington\u2019s flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham<\/a>, and pleaded with people to focus on the sport and not the continual sideshows.<\/p>\n\u201cThe hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness that\u2019s trying to hijack our league will not win. It won\u2019t win,\u201d White said, her voice rising as she pounded the table in front of her. \u201cWe are united. We are connected. We will not be divided. Every day these women put their ass on the line. Every day when they go low, we go high. Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win and kindness will win. I stand by them, I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
White left immediately after her 2 1\/2-minute outburst ended without taking questions.<\/p>\n
Indiana responded with one of its best halves of the season, shooting 59% from the field and 79% on 3-pointers on its way to a 106-92 victory over the New York Liberty. The Fever have won seven of their last nine despite being the focal point of so many controversies.<\/p>\n
Fever All-Star Caitlin Clark wasn\u2019t surprised by how the Fever played or White\u2019s pregame reaction. She was more upset by the boos she heard during White\u2019s pregame introduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to Steph earlier in the day and you know I think we forget a lot of times, like, we\u2019re humans and she has feelings and there are moments that are really hard and sometimes that\u2019s the job we sign up for,\u201d Clark said. \u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s OK to feel those emotions and I told her I\u2019ve been through the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark added: \u201cThere was like no way we were losing this game. Like, that\u2019s my head coach. Like, I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrington hit Cunningham in the head and neck area Saturday, knocking the Fever guard hard to the ground on a breakaway layup. Cunningham got up and charged toward Carrington but was restrained.<\/p>\n
Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2, an automatic ejection. The Chicago Sky player then wrote \u201cWHITE PRIVILEGE\u201d and tagged the Fever on a social media account. On Monday, Carrington said she never claimed the foul call was \u201cwhite privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham has been outspoken about her desire to keep transgender women out of women\u2019s sports, a position that has spurred rallies in support of and opposed to her stance.<\/p>\n
White initially said she thought the refs got the call right but that she didn\u2019t think that action near the head and neck area was intentional. Critics claimed she was defending Carrington.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK… The Indiana Fever need to let Stephanie White go,\u201d Indiana Lieutenant Gov. Micah Beckwith wrote Sunday on X. \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. Terrible coaching! The Fever need to defend their players.\u201d <\/p>\n
White explained Tuesday that she had not seen the replay when she first spoke with reporters Saturday and that she changed her opinion after watching it again. She called the foul \u201cegregious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur players\u2019 success, our players\u2019 health and wellness, our players\u2019 safety is always a top priority,\u201d she began, her voice rising. \u201cOne of the things I pride myself on is my relationships with my players. For those who have anything to say about the play in the last game, I didn\u2019t see the replay. I went straight to a press conference, I thought the play got called right. Thankfully, Sophie is OK. Was it egregious? Absolutely. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get a chance to see that on replay over and over, you see that. I didn\u2019t see that in real time. I personally take any suggestions that I don\u2019t 100% always have my players back. I ride with them 10 toes down all the time, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham received a loud ovation when she entered Tuesday\u2019s game. She and White hugged after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s just been a lot of outside noise but our locker room is good,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cWe have each other\u2019s backs. Coach loves us. So give her her flowers. She didn\u2019t see the clip and that\u2019s OK. Me and Steph are great, and Steph is great with all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
White faced a similar controversy when Clark also was fouled hard earlier this season, prompting a letter from the U.S. House of Representatives to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.<\/p>\n
White and Clark also were involved in a sideline spat in late and there was speculation about White\u2019s job status following the incident.<\/p>\n
Now White just wants everyone to get back to basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame we can\u2019t have an opportunity to talk about what great basketball they are playing,\u201d White said with emphasis. \u201cThe reality is, with me, I will always lead with love. I will always lead with grace, I will always lead with humility. and I will always lead with integrity. It doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ll always get it right. I\u2019m human.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White has had enough of the conversations around the WNBA this…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[1339,23136,8731,6323,2862,234,403,16091,62,1490,67,132,68,232,22795,12860],"class_list":["post-995227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-cathy-engelbert","tag-dijonai-carrington","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-fever","tag-new-york-city","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-basketball","tag-womens-national-basketball-association"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117080174512175966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}