Women's Fastbreak On SI

Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky Fans Vie For Services of Sun Coach Stephanie White

Fever and Sky fans both want Stephanie Smith as their team's next head coach, after a report that she won't return to the Connecticut Sun.

Grant Young

Sep 29, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White looks on during the first half against the Minnesota Lynx of game one of the 2024 WNBA Semi-finals at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images
Sep 29, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White looks on during the first half against the Minnesota Lynx of game one of the 2024 WNBA Semi-finals at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Despite producing a very respectable season, the Connecticut Sun's 2024 campaign came to an end after their bitter defeat to the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA Semifinals.

The Sun's future is now shadowed by uncertainty. While they've been one of the league's elite teams for most of the past decade, they never made it over the hump and became WNBA champions, despite boasting an impressive roster.

When a team reaches a crossroads, the first person whose role may change is typically that team's head coach. And that seems to be the case with Sun head coach Stephanie White.

An October 10 article from Annie Costabile from the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "Stephanie White isn’t expected to return to coach the Sun in 2025."

White has been the Connecticut head coach for the past two seasons, where she amassed a 55-25 regular season record. She also won the 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year award.

With White not expected to return to Connecticut, both Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky fans are hoping she'll become their team's next head coach.

She certainly would make sense for the Sky, who recently fired former head coach Teresa Weatherspoon.

One X user wrote, "(I’d love Steph & her leather jackets returning to the Sky, but I bet they’ll screw that up, as usual)".

Chicago Sky fan @clutch2_j posted a gif of Jimmy Butler with the caption, "Stephanie White might not return as head coach of the sun????"

White was an assistant coach for the Sky from 2007-2010. She then became an assistant coach of the Fever (where she spent five seasons as a WNBA player) from 2011-2014, before becoming Indiana's head coach in the 2015-2016 seasons.

While Fever president of basketball operations Kelly Krauskopf praised current Indiana head coach Christie Sides in a recent press conference, many Fever fans would still love to see White replace Sides.

"No long af #Fever analysis thread needed for this one — if the @IndianaFever can get Stephanie White as their HC it changes the entire #WNBA dynamic. It’s just that simple — you go from a worse version of Mike McCarthy to a top 3 coach in the league," said X user @SportsNerdHQ.

X user @cc22report added, "If Stephanie White is coaching for someone not the Sun next year and Sides is still our head coach I take back everything I ever said about the new Front Office being serious or good".

Time will tell whether either of these two franchises will have White on their sidelines come 2025.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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