This moment, this kind of growth the WNBA has seen in the past year, is something Stephanie White has been waiting on for 25 years.
She’ll get to embrace that growth with her hometown franchise. White, from West Lebanon, Ind., was officially announced as Indiana Fever’s head coach Friday. It comes after the 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year parted ways with the Connecticut Sun after two seasons.
“First and foremost, it’s home for me,” White told ESPN’s ‘NBA Today.’ “This is a franchise, the Indiana Fever, Indiana Pacers, that’s in my DNA. Grew up in Indiana, played in Indiana, played with the franchise, of course part of the franchise when we won the WNBA championship.”
More: Stephanie White knew Caitlin Clark would develop. Now, she’ll lead Clark’s next steps.
White has been a part of the WNBA in some form almost since its inception; she was drafted in 1999, two years after the league started in 1997. She has been a player, assistant coach, head coach with multiple franchises, and won a WNBA championship as an assistant for the Fever.
In all of those years, she has never seen anything like this moment in the league. The WNBA had unprecedented growth in the 2024 season, catalyzed by Caitlin Clark and the rest of the rookie class. The Fever saw an over 1,000% increase in merchandise sales, had 38 games on national TV and sold-out arenas cheering for Clark and Indiana anywhere they went.
White already has a familiar relationship with the Fever’s top player, too, outside of being her new coach. White said she has known about Clark since she was in eighth grade; White was coaching at Vanderbilt at the time, and Clark was at the top of a lot of college coaches’ watch lists. Now, It’s been nearly 10 years since White first heard of Clark, and she’s grown into the superstar a lot of coaches predicted her to be.
“She’s a student of the game,” White said. “She loves the game of basketball. She has been so great in how she’s handled, you know, all of the attention. She just wants to play, she just wants to win. I’m looking forward to coaching players like that, and this young franchise, this young team, and taking our next steps.”
Viewership across the board shot up in 2024, with this season becoming the most-watched on ESPN in 25 years — a 170% increase from 2023. The WNBA Finals were the most-viewed in 25 years, with each of the five games garnering over 1 million viewers, and 32 games throughout the season had over a million watch.
White has seen this increase from both sides — in the WNBA offseason, she’s an analyst for ESPN, covering the NBA and Big Ten women’s basketball game. She knew this moment was coming, based on the excitement she saw from women’s college basketball games these past seasons.
“I think the greatest thing is just for me, having been a part of the WNBA for 25 years, having worked on both sides of it, in the in the media and in the coaching room, and being a player in this league as well, I mean, this is the moment that we’ve been waiting for,” White told NBA Today in her first interview since being named coach of the Fever. “So, I don’t know if you prepare for it as much as you just embrace it. Embrace where we are. Think about the momentum moving forward, where we wanted this league to be, where we still aspire for it to go, and just embrace this moment, embrace this opportunity, continue to help this team, this franchise, be better position ourselves for success.”
With her new role, White is now tasked with coaching Clark and 2023 Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston, as well as Kelsey Mitchell (if she re-signs), Lexie Hull and the rest of the program to a deep playoff run. This is a Fever team that is just coming out of a rebuild, with their 20-20 season in 2024 marking the first time they’ve made the playoffs since 2016.
There’s a lot of young talent on this roster: three All-Stars, two Rookies of the Year, and players who have an innate desire to win. And White has the skills to harness it into a contender.
“This young, exciting roster, you think about a generational player in Caitlin Clark and back-to-back Rookie of the Years with Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell, I think, had the best year of her career,” White said. “It’s just an exciting roster. What an outstanding moment we have in women’s basketball right now, and to come back and be a part of it in my home state with my home franchise, it’s just a unique opportunity, and I’m so thankful.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White hopes to ’embrace this moment’ in WNBA
