“[It] includes maximizing our talent and bringing another WNBA championship back to Indiana,” the Indiana Fever President of Basketball Operations Kelly Krauskopf had spoken while firing Christie Sides. And in their hopes of finding the next Championship-winning coach, the Fever stumbled on their reliable ex-star Stephanie White. However, famous journalist Annie Costabile who was the first to break the news of White’s move, revealed that the events were set in motion with the Chicago Sky.

On Friday’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, Costabile shared her take on White’s eventual transfer to the Indiana Fever, while the host Jackie Powell revealed how that will be costing Fever more than a million.

“Yeah. So honestly it started because the Sky were looking for a coach, right? So you start contacting your sources about who could be available and… and who this guy would even be interested in,” Costabile stated. The Sky failed to qualify for the playoffs this year and had an abysmal time after the Olympics break, as their main star, Angel Reese, was injured. The Chicago-based team finished with a 13-27 tally, and once that happened, there were reports that their head coach, Teresa Weatherspoon, would be leaving the franchise.

And so I mean the first piece of information, I got was just that Stephanie White might not return to the Connecticut Sun and so that was kind of a big question,” Costabile revealed. At the same time, there were also reports that White might not stay with the Connecticut Sun for long.

Furthermore, the reporter pointed out that coaches and athletes must be comfortable with losing their job even if “you’re great at your job, you can be poached at any time. And that’s not shameful. That’s not wrong.” Furthermore, she was open to the idea that the participants should have the freedom to move to other avenues without having “to tiptoe around it. Like by any means now… necessary means… by any means necessary and it’s okay for women’s sports teams to be that competitive.”

White had been with the Connecticut Sun for two seasons, taking the Connecticut-based franchise to two semi-finals. Unfortunately, White’s mentees lost to the New York Liberty by 3-1 in 2023 and to the Minnesota Lynx by 3-2 in 2024, respectively. While White also bagged the WNBA Coach of the Year in her first season itself, there were reports that she wouldn’t be completing her three-year contract.

“And so when I first heard like… ‘Oh can Stephanie might not return to the Sun,’ my thought was like do the Sky really have a shot at her right? Because the Sky history since winning their title has been anything but glamorous. And has been anything but top tier,” Costabile enumerated. Meanwhile, the Sky won only a single championship and conference title in 2021 and 2014, respectively. And compared to them, the Fever provided a place of familiarity with White, having played for them from 2000 to 2004.

And when you’re talking about a coach like Stephanie, she’s a top tier coach. So for me it… it really started with again trying to understand the landscape that included the sky and… and… ,” Costabile enunciated. Plus, she was also the assistant coach from 2011-14, a period in which the Fever won the Championship title (2012).

To top that, White had also been the head coach from 2015 and 2016 and achieved incredible results, taking the team to the WNBA Finals in 2015., Therefore, all this further enhanced the chances of the Fever reuniting with White. However, other factors at play got the 47-year-old to return to Indiana.

“And once I started to hear you know where Stephanie was? who? which team? Stephanie was… Talking to it kind of became clear ‘Okay! This is where she’s gonna end up, right?’ She’s from Indiana. Family obviously was a huge factor in her decision,” Costabile found her EUREKA moment.

One of the major deciding factors for White was that she was away from Indiana and her immediate family. As part of the blended family, her partner Lisa Salters and their four growing sons had to be away from the former Vanderbilt coach. The Illinois-born also revealed that it was difficult to be with the Sun because “I did not see my children a lot from the time they went back to school in August until I got home in October.

Plus she also added that the Sun wouldn’t “want to be pegged as the team that won’t let that… that’s holding someone.” Hence, “it became clear that there were actually going to be opportunities to… to make that happen… happen. It’s you know the Fever made all the sense in the world,” she concluded. While fans are happy that she has gotten back to her family, some are calling it impatience, especially since she had a year of coaching left at the Sun, and this will cost Indiana a fortune.

Indiana Fever to pay money because of their title hopes

As mentioned, White was hired as the head coach in hopes of taking the Fever to another championship title. Previously, she was the assistant coach when the Fever won their only Championship title in 2012. Then, during her tenure as the head coach, she took the Fever to the WNBA Finals in 2015 and then to the WNBA playoffs the next year, which was the only time before this season that the team had qualified for the elimination round. Thus, the Fever hoped that White would help them clinch another title. However, that has come with its own cost.

“Stephanie White has returned to Indiana. I mean the Indiana Fever are making moves. They let their head coach Christie Sides go… They are gonna be paying Stephanie White’s final year on her Sun contract and Christie Sides’ final two years. So clearly they have the money to do this,” Powell divulged.

According to Powell, the Fever will have to pay White’s salary, which she would have gotten during her final year with the Sun. While the Sun did not publicly reveal the details of the contract, the Indiana-based franchise will also be paying Sides, the salary of the final two years as she had those many years left on her contract. And according to reports, the Fever were paying $500,000 a year. Thus, White’s wish to be with her family, coupled with Fever’s aspirations to win the title, will cost them $1 million at least.