The Indiana Fever have enjoyed a wildly successful season. Caitlin Clark won AP Comeback Player of the Year, Kelsey Mitchell broke all-time WNBA scoring records, and the team went 28-16.
Off the court, however, the Fever were at the center of several toxic narratives, including guard Sophie Cunningham setting off a media firestorm around transgender athletes. At one point, Fever fans booed head coach Stephanie White, which Clark said “made me a little sick.”
On Sunday, White reflected on how she’s navigated her mental health through it all.
“It’s tough,” White said at her pregame press conference before Indiana’s 102-85 loss to the Las Vegas Aces in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. “Certainly, my therapist helps. My family helps. I have the luxury of being able to sort of minimize what gets in. But, at the end of the day, nobody likes to be a subject of ugliness from the internet.”
“Oftentimes, what happens on the internet then becomes articles in the news now,” White continued. “We didn’t used to have that. It used to stay on the internet. It stayed on social media. And so, now, it becomes news.”
White shared that she tries to “lead by example” and encourages her players to use readily available mental health resources, which she uses for herself.
Then, White got extremely real about the state of media and the broken society it reflects:
“But there’s moments where it does get hard, and it does get heavy. Because it is ugly. I often say, ‘It’s not hard to not be a jerk.’ But maybe it is. Maybe it’s harder to be kind, especially in the world that we live in right now, where it seems that it’s okay to call people names. It’s okay to bully and berate and degrade. It’s the world that we’re living in right now.
“For me, personally, I have my ups and downs. Just like I’m sure that many of these young people have their ups and downs. For me to talk about it and show them that they’re not alone, I think, is important. For me to just still try to be a voice of reason when there’s a lot of unreason out there—and that it doesn’t have to be this way.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. But it is the reality that we’re living in right now, and mental health has to be a priority.”
On Aug. 11, White gave a passionate monologue during her pregame presser in response to disingenuous criticism over how she handled DiJonai Carrington’s Flagrant 2 foul on Cunningham.
“The hate, the fear-mongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that’s trying to hijack our league will not win,” White said, in part. “It won’t win. We are united, we are connected, [and] 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 [my players]. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.”
White has been consistent on insisting that “the online community” is responsible for most of the distorted vitriol enveloping the WNBA.
In real life, the Fever will face elimination when they host the reigning champion Aces in Indianapolis for Game 2 on Tuesday.
About Megan Armstrong
Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.