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It was not long ago that NBA commissioner Adam Silver described Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark as a “political football,” and the noise has arguably ratcheted up even since then.
Clark and the Indiana Fever have, in August alone, become the faces of the debate around transgender athletes in America and have been forced to defend themselves against allegations of “white privilege” from a longtime rival defensive stopper.
All this means that reporters are increasingly asking Clark and her teammates about being in the middle of culture wars and political arguments at the same press conferences where their answers are fueling them. Yet the Fever continue to dominate, sitting fourth in the WNBA and looking like one of the best offensive teams in league history.
On Monday, head coach Stephanie White praised her team for compartmentalizing and banding together in the face of outsized chatter around them.
“Nothing that any one of us does, is ever, we’re going to please everyone all the time. I think the biggest thing that we learn is how to be responsive instead of reactive in certain situations,” White said.
“I think it’s really easy, especially for young people or those who aren’t in it every day, to react to everything that happens. It’s also dangerous to react to everything that happens. I think from a (human) perspective and life-lesson perspective, I think our group does a really good job of responding. I think our group does a really good job of pouring into one another, of keeping the main thing the main thing, of understanding that there are a lot of folks out there who want to divide us.
“That there are a lot of folks out there who want to create more challenges for us. And in our locker room, we do a really good job of keeping that outside the locker room and pulling for one another.”
Of course, bench forward Sophie Cunningham brought some recent scrutiny upon the team herself by sharing her views about trans athletes in an ESPN profile and later doubling down. Since then, figures across the WNBA have been forced to offer their perspectives on the issue, while the Fever have drawn the ire of opposing players and coaches, as well as media voices.
But clearly, White’s message is cutting through to the players, and they have stayed focused on basketball.
The coach said she hopes that the situation the Fever face can provide “great life lessons” beyond players’ athletic careers.
The post Fever coach Stephanie White praises team for not being ‘reactive’ to outsiders who ‘want to divide’ them appeared first on Awful Announcing.
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