The prevailing opinion was that Christie Sides was coaching on borrowed time as soon as the Indiana Fever won the WNBA Draft Lottery for the right to draft Caitlin Clark as the #1 overall pick.
For Christie Sides, the clock struck midnight on Sunday. Despite leading the team to the playoffs after a 9-5 post-Olympic break finish, it’s clear that the team’s management wants a coach who can blend Clark and Aliyah Boston with the rest of the roster and push for a WNBA championship.
The Fever can’t waste an opportunity with Boston and Clark because there isn’t any assurance they’ll be with the team long-term. That’s why there’s a sense of urgency to move quickly. Indeed, other changes have already been made. The Simon family hired Kelly Krauskopf, who oversaw Indiana’s championship run a decade ago, to manage the team’s business and basketball operations, and it hired Amber Cox from the Dallas Wings to be the Fever’s chief operating officer and general manager.
Stephanie White (photo, Indy Star)
Stephanie White, who left the Connecticut Sun as head coach after the season, is among the names to replace Sides. White has a history with Indiana—as a player, assistant coach, and head coach—and she worked with Krauskopf during that time.
What can White bring that Sides could not? It’s experience at the championship level. Sides’s offense was predictable, and she often struggled to adjust to substitutions, neither of which is uncommon for coaches trying to establish themselves in the WNBA.
That said, Sides kept the Fever together after a rough start, and then the team made a run that captured the fancy of fans nationwide. All the while, Clark, the Fever, and Sides were getting unprecedented media and fan scrutiny. While rough around the edges early in the season, as the year went on, Sides seemed more mature on the sideline and during press conferences.
I believe Sides can succeed as head coach in time. Five WNBA teams have vacancies—Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago, and Los Angeles—and one of those spots may be a good fit. If there’s poetic justice (given her experience with Clark), perhaps she’ll have an opportunity to be Paige Brueckers’ first pro head coach.
