Stephanie White Gets Backlash for Decision in Fever Loss to Wings originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Perhaps even more than in most established leagues, the WNBA features a litany of social-media coaches who are quite sure that the boss of the local team is clueless and must be replaced, the sooner the better. The Indiana Fever have a wide range of fans in their stable these days, which means the online outrage machine has a near-constant stream of fodder.
Advertisement
Veteran coach Stephanie White is Indiana’s coach now. Thus, it’s her turn to take the flak from torch-carrying Fever fans.
While the great majority of the criticism ranges from unfair to nonsensical, the criticism of White on Tuesday night, in the Fever’s 81-80 loss to the Wings at home after a game of wild swings, actually has some merit to it. White made a legitimately bizarre decision at the end of the game that did not necessarily cost the Fever the win, but did diminish the quality of the final shot they were able to get.
Advertisement
Fever Had a Timeout Remaining
With just about 12 seconds to play in the game and the Wings ahead by one point following a Paige Bueckers miss, Natasha Howard came down with the rebound and a chance at the win. But rather than quickly using the timeout still in her possession, White waited until there were just 1.7 seconds left to call the time out.
The inbound play went to Kelsey Mitchell, who had little time to create space and wound up firing up a wild, contested 18-footer from the wing.
Advertisement
The usual fan insults were prevalent on Twitter/X.
As one wrote, “Stephanie White is a terrible coach. I’ve been a defender all season, but I can’t defend her after tonight. Awful loss and all due to coaching. The refs are bad every game. I know she’s a players coach and genuinely cares for the girls, but her X’s and O’s are awful.”
And another added, “Fever got the ball with 12 secs to go and a timeout left. What exactly was Stephanie White saving this timeout for???”
Advertisement
It was not just fans, though. Prominent WNBA voice Meghan Hall of USA Today wondered the same thing, as she wondered: “Wait … why did Stephanie White take so long to call that timeout?”
Even those defending White, like broadcaster Robin Lundberg, conceded it was a mistake not to get to the timeout earlier.
He wrote, “Stephanie White could have called the reset sooner but it is common for coaches not to call timeout here to not allow the defense to get set.”
Advertisement
The Fever fall on 18-15 with the loss.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 13, 2025, where it first appeared.
