Stephanie White Becomes Latest Fired WNBA Head Coach, What Is Going On?
The Connecticut Sun fired head coach Stephanie White following a season in which the team went 28-12 and won a playoff series.
Of course, speculation is rampant that the Sun let White go because she's destined to become the next head coach of the Indiana Fever, who fired Christie Sides over the weekend.
White played the majority of her WNBA playing career with the Fever and spent three years as an assistant coach in Indiana, including for the team's 2012 WNBA championship season.
She became the head coach of the Fever in 2015 and coached the team for two seasons before leaving for the coaching job at Vanderbilt.
White returned to the WNBA with Connecticut prior to the 2023 season and won the league's Coach of the Year Award.
A return to the Fever would make her the head coach of Caitlin Clark, the biggest superstar in the WNBA.
The Connecticut Sun fired head coach Stephanie White and now half the teams in the WNBA have let their head coach go.
(David Butler II/Imagn Images)
Still, White represented the sixth WNBA head coach – out of 12 – to not return as the coach of their team for the 2025 season.
So, what is going on?
Although the league lost $40 million in 2024, the popularity of the WNBA has never been higher.
They have a new media deal kicking in next season that represents a six-fold increase over the previous one.
Had that deal been in place this year, the league would have profited over $100 million. That's a massive increase.
It also means that teams can afford to spend more money on their players and coaches.
With more money to spend and more visibility for the league, WNBA teams will be able to lure higher-quality candidates to become head coaches.
That's especially important for the development of the young stars, hence why the Fever and Chicago Sky (who have Angel Reese) let their head coaches go.
The Chicago Sky were one of six WNBA teams to fire its head coach this offseason.
(Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images)
This also means that they could lure male head coaches, possibly NBA assistants, into head coaching vacancies.
That would be interesting. For a league that likes to talk about the gender pay gap, hiring men to coach women's basketball teams might seem like the opposite of their "mission statement."
But teams want to win, too. And, statistically speaking, there are many more qualified male head basketball coaches than women.
That's simply because more men go into athletic coaching than women. It's just a fact.
So, what happens now?
WNBA teams are going to have to make decisions about who they want leading their teams moving into this new era of the league.
Are they going to go the DEI route and demand that only women can get the jobs and possibly only women of color? That worked out really well for the Democrats with Kamala Harris (he said, sarcastically).
Or, are they actually going to have teams interview everyone and just pick the best person for the job?
That's the real WNBA storyline to watch this offseason.