It was a special night at the Oakland Centre. Team Bond kicked off the All-Start Weekend festivities alright while Rome Flynn got to do more than keep his word. “I wanna win,” he had said and well, the MVP honors were his by the end of the night with a game-high 22 points. But the real winners on the day of love were the broadcasting team who managed to pull off an adorable surprise for Stephanie White.

The new head coach of the Indiana Fever was in the middle of her duties as an ESPN analyst for the NBA Ruffles Celebrity Game. She was deep in conversation with play-by-play announcer Mark Jones, completely unaware about her Valentine’s day surprise.

As she chatted, her four children—Landon, Aiden, Avery, and Samuel—walked onto the court, with the eldest carrying a bouquet. When she turned around, the look on her face said it all—pure shock, followed by overwhelming joy.

“Stephanie, we ran a misdirection on you,” Jones would say and the Fever coach did not argue. She repeated ‘thank you,’ over and over again as her little boys leaned in for a hug, creating a moment that melted hearts across the arena and beyond.

White has three biological children—Landon and twins Aiden and Avery—with her former husband, Brent McCarty, whom she divorced in 2002. She later found love with Lisa Salters, who has an adopted son, Samuel. The moment must have meant everything to the head coach who has often had to stay away from her family.

Ever since White signed as the head coach of the Connecticut Sun, she had been busier than ever. She won WNBA Coach of the Year in her first season and then led the Sun to the league semifinals in both of her two years with the team. However, being in Connecticut was difficult for her wife and their four children. Their family is based in Nashville, which has no direct flights to Hartford—the closest airport to the Sun’s home arena. Even after landing, it was an hour-long drive to Uncasville.

“You know, being out in Connecticut every year, I would sit down with my kids and my family, even before I took the job, when I was interviewing for other jobs, and just say, ‘Hey, are we on board with this?’” White said. “Each fall, it has been really difficult because I did not see my children a lot from the time they go back to school in August until I get home in October.”

As if that wasn’t enough, her work schedule trimmed her time with the kids even more.

Stephanie White found a way to get family time amid tough job schedules

White also works as an analyst in the WNBA offseason. Since her kids attend school in Nashville, it was difficult for her to see them for up to three months at a time. So, while she still technically had a year left on her contract with the Sun, running through the 2024 season, White chose to take the job with the Indiana Fever.

“For those of us who have children, you know, you don’t get these years back, right?” White said at her introductory press conference. “You don’t get this time back. And my family sacrificed a lot of time with my children, and for them to now be able to have them around more often, for me to be closer to home, it was really important. There’s always a time in your life where you feel like everything needs to be grounded, everything needs to be centered so that you can be where your feet are.”

For her Indianapolis has always been home. That’s because she grew up just 1.5 hours from the outskirts of the city. From her high school days as Miss Basketball to her coaching tenure with the Fever, she has lived and breathed Indiana basketball.

Now, she will be able to see her boys grow. Though that wasn’t the only reason for her return to Indiana.

Salters, a seasoned sideline reporter herself for ESPN’s Monday Night Football, had to juggle her career while also taking care of their children. She even ended up missing her work for weeks once. .

Commentator Joe Buck acknowledged her absence during a broadcast. “We miss the heck out of Lisa Salters, who is tending to a family matter,” he said. “Hope to have her back next week or whenever she gets things settled. We’re certainly thinking of her on this night, as we were a week ago.”

But now, all of that is in the past. As the Indiana Fever’s head coach, White is finally just a short drive away from her boys.