Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
Sep 28, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White and forward Aliyah Boston (7) in the second half during game four against the Las Vegas Aces of the second round for the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
On the court, the Indiana Fever is firing on all cylinders. Indiana is 7-3 in its last 10 games and sits at the top of the WNBA Eastern Conference while boasting the best scoring offense in the history of the league.
Off the court, however, it’s a different story. The team has been at the center of controversy ever since drafting superstar Caitlin Clark, and that’s only continued with recent drama surrounding guard Sophie Cunningham and her comments regarding trans athletes, which seemingly led to on-court incidents with DiJonai Carrington and Jonquel Jones.
Fever coach Stephanie White, meanwhile, was booed in her own building, and fans called for her to be fired after she defended Carrington’s hard foul on Cunningham.
To this point, Indiana players have managed to focus on basketball amid the chaos. But the boos for White were a step to far for Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell.
Indiana Fever Stars Stand Up Stephanie White Amid Backlash
Both Clark and Cunningham defended White following Tuesday night’s 106-92 victory over the New York Liberty, and now Boston and Mitchell have done the same.
“I think when you are on your home floor and your team’s getting announced and the coach’s getting announced, I feel like there’s no reason for any of that,” Boston told local news station WISH-TV News. “I mean, we come out here, and we do everything that we can to win, and I think Steph does a great job with us. Like, we love her, and we appreciate her, and so to hear that, it was really annoying, honestly, and disrespectful. But for us, I mean, we kept the main thing, the main thing, and we said we’re gonna come out here, and we’re gonna get that dub.”
“To hear that, it was really annoying, honestly, and disrespectful.”#Fever center Aliyah Boston on the boos that head coach Stephanie White received on Tuesday: pic.twitter.com/gmUAbTun49
— WISH-TV News (@WISHNews8) August 13, 2026
Mitchell, meanwhile, shared similar sentiments.
“I told her to her face, I said, ‘Coach, this is for you,’ in terms of just a sense of confidence,” Mitchell said of a conversation with White after the win. “…If anybody knows me, it’s that I don’t play that. So it really hurt my feelings to see her having emotions in terms of not feeling valued or not feeling wanted at the place where she has to coach.”
To this point, the Fever have thrived amid the constant outside noise. But it’s easy to wonder if that’s sustainable given the near-constant distractions.