Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White expressed her thoughts extensively on Alyssa Thomas’ recent statement about the online criticism she has received since her suspension. The Phoenix Mercury center revealed that she received death threats on social media from fans who weren’t happy with her hard foul on Caitlin Clark. Addressing the issue after the Fever practice session on July 1, White backed Thomas.
Talking to the media about the online trolling Thomas talked about earlier, White said:
“It’s absolutely unacceptable. You know, I think as a league, as a whole, there’s so much more toxicity, racism, homophobia, straight-out nonsense, like hate nonsense, and it is absolutely unacceptable. Most of this is coming from the online community. Most of this, in my heart I believe, not coming from WNBA fans, Indiana Fever fans.”
However, analyst Dan Dakich was not happy with White’s decision to show support for Thomas when the squad and the team’s superstar are in a very visible feud with that team. He shared White’s statement on X and wrote:
“Why is it so difficult for Stephanie White and the dumbass front office of @Fever to 100% unequivocally SUPPORT CAITLIN CLARK? This is jackassery”
Notably, Fever teammates Clark and Sophie Cunningham have also been victims of alleged stalking incidents off the court and had to fight a legal battle. Earlier, a federal judge ruled in favor of Clark and sentenced the accused, Michael Lewis, to 2.5 years in prison.
Recently, a man named Kevin Singh was sentenced for stalking Cunningham on similar charges. However, there have been no public statements from the front office regarding that. Dakich raised that in his next post on X:
“Clark/Cunningham have had serious stalkers that have been arrested and this coach has never said a word”
Earlier, Dakich publicly backed White and criticized Clark for not following the coach’s decisions amid the Fever guard’s fallout with Steph on the bench. However, it seems the analyst has changed his course.
“Every day it can be something different” – Stephanie White gives an uncertain timeline for Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark has been sidelined due to her nagging back issues. She has felt the impact since the start of the season, and finally, the management decided to give her some rest. The team didn’t miss her too much in their most recent 111-87 win against the Los Angeles Sparks.
When asked about the superstar guard’s timeline for Sunday’s game, White said:
“I think every day is a little bit better, and again, I reiterate for those who haven’t had back issues, you know, every day it can be something different. You know, you can feel really good in practices or workouts or warm-ups, whatever, and then you go to bed at night, and you wake up, and it’s different.”
Even though there is no clarity about Caitlin Clark’s return to the roster, the team has felt good with Tyasha Harris stepping up. She was constantly struggling with minutes, and as soon as she got the opportunity to play as a starter, she didn’t let it go. Harris dropped 16 points in 30 minutes, with five rebounds and three assists.
The Fever will now face A’ja Wilson’s Las Vegas Aces, and the team will need its superstar back with full vigour to face the defending champions.
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