Credit: Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Indiana Fever star Aliyah Boston said it was “really annoying, honestly, and disrespectful” that fans booed head coach Stephanie White before their game on Tuesday, Aug. 11
- Boston said White “does a great job with us” and that the Fever players “love her and appreciate her”
- Boston’s teammates Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell also spoke out against fans booing White
Indiana Fever star Aliyah Boston didn’t appreciate fans booing head coach Stephanie White at home.
Boston, 24, told reporters on Thursday, Aug. 13 that it was “really annoying, honestly, and disrespectful” when Fever fans booed White, 49, during introductions ahead of tipoff before their win over the Liberty two days prior.
“I think when you are on your home floor and the team’s getting announced and the coach is getting announced, there’s no reason for any of that,” Boston said, as seen in a video shared by WISH-TV News.
Boston continued, “I mean, we come out here, we do everything that we can to win. I think Steph does a great job with us, like, we love her and we appreciate her and so, to hear that, it was really annoying honestly and disrespectful. But, we kept the main the thing main thing and we said we were gonna come out here and we’re gonna get that dub.”
"To hear that, it was really annoying, honestly, and disrespectful."#Fever center Aliyah Boston on the boos that head coach Stephanie White received on Tuesday: pic.twitter.com/gmUAbTun49
— WISH-TV News (@WISHNews8) August 13, 2026
Some Fever fans felt White deserved boos after she defended the Chicago Sky’s DiJonai Carrington’s hard foul on Sophie Cunningham days before. The Fever’s Cunningham was driving to the net when Carrington made contact with her head and jaw.
After the game, White defended Carrington, who she previously coached on the Connecticut Sun.
“One of the things about [Carrington] is that she’s gonna play her butt off, man,” White said. “She’s gonna compete. Nobody’s gonna go walking in for a layup. And so, I don’t oppose the hard foul.”
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The incident was another instance of the fiery temperatures within the WNBA over the last month, in the aftermath of Cunningham’s anti-transgender comments.
Boston wasn’t the only Fever player to call out the fans who booed White. Caitlin Clark said after defeating the Liberty on Tuesday that “there was no way we were losing the game for [White].”
“I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick, to be honest,” Clark, 24, said in her postgame press conference.
Kelsey Mitchell addressed the booing as well, telling reporters including James Boyd of The Athletic, “If anybody know me, I don’t play that. So, it really hurt my feelings to see her kind of have emotions in terms of not feeling valued, not feeling wanted.”
Mitchell added, “Our culture is not gonna let her fall to the wayside.”
Credit: Justin Casterline/Getty
The Indiana Fever defeated the Liberty 106-92 on Tuesday. Next, they’ll host Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings on Friday, Aug. 14.
Read the original article on People