Caitlin Clark defends Fever coach after fans booed: 'That made me a little sick'

Caitlin Clark delivered a lengthy speech defending Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White after hearing boos from the home crowd in an eventual win over the New York Liberty.

After the 106-92 victory in which Clark totaled 22 points, 10 assists and four rebounds, she spoke with reporters and had this to say: "I can assure you there was no way we were losing this game tonight, and I told [White] that before the game."

"That's my head coach," she added. "I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick, to be honest. And you can disagree and this and that, and I get it -- it's professional sports, people are going to boo, but at the end of the day that's our head coach, we're going to ride for her and we're always going to have her back and that's never going to tear our locker room apart."

The boos came after White's comments in the Fever's last game against the Chicago Sky on Saturday after DiJonai Carrington's Flagrant 2 foul against Sophie Cunningham. At the time, White said this, via USA TODAY:

Immediately after the on-court incident, White said officials made "the right call" and noted she didn't think the foul was intentional. White coached Carrington for two seasons in Connecticut (2023-24) and said Carrington is known for "play(ing) her butt off."

"She's going to compete. Nobody's going to go walking in for a layup," White said at the time. "And so I don't oppose the hard foul, but I also don't think that she intentionally went for the neck."

White gave a statement before Tuesday's game that was "more for an online community that's trying to create narratives that simply don't exist, trying to create a fabrication or distortion of who I am, of what I'm about."

She spoke about the Flagrant 2 foul and how she didn't see the play "in real time" and called it "egregious" after rewatching it.

Stephanie White made the following statement before tonight's game: pic.twitter.com/VkYThRldsu

"I take personally any suggestions that I don't 100 percent always have my players' back. I ride with them 10 toes down all the time, they know that. It's a shame that we can't have an opportunity to talk about what great basketball they're playing."

Then, there was this message:

"The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that's trying to hijack our league will not win. ... We are united, we are connected, we will not be divided."

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Caitlin Clark defends Fever coach after fans booed: 'That made me a little sick'