Indiana Fever All-Star guard Caitlin Clark publicly backed Stephanie White after Indiana's second-year head coach was booed on the team's home court at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Aug. 11.\nThe boo birds rained down on White ahead of a 106-92 win over the New York Liberty, which marked the Fever's first game since Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington's hard foul on Sophie Cunningham and subsequent "White Privilege" post Aug. 8 reignited conversations about player safety and race. Some Fever fans felt White didnt adequately defend Cunningham, with Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith going as far as calling for White to be fired.\n"I told (Stephanie White) that before the game, there was no way we were losing this game for her. And it's tough. That's my head coach. I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick, to be honest," Clark said in her postgame remarks. "It's professional sports, people are going to boo, but at the end of the day... 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."\nClark added, "I just love her and I feel for her because I know it can be a lot at times and she does a great job a lot of times blocking it out, but there's other moments where it can get under your skin and that's just being human and that's just life."\nThere was no way we were losing this game for [Stephanie White]. I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick, to be honest.Caitlin Clark on the Indiana Fevers motivation heading into tonights game against the Liberty. pic.twitter.com/NlIR1Umxkz espnW (@espnW) August 12, 2026\nWhite opened her pregame news conference by addressing the apparent backlash she received following her comments about Carrington's flagrant 2 foul against Cunningham, which resulted in Carrington's ejection for making "unnecessary and excessive" contact with Cunningham's neck in the Fever's 90-86 win over the Sky.\nImmediately 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." \n"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."\nOn Tuesday, White shot down any claims she was siding against her own player and clarified she hadn't seen a replay of the "egregious" foul before she spoke postgame.\n"This isn't necessarily for the people that are in this room. This is 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," White said during an impassion pregame speech on Tuesday, adding, "Our players' success, our players' health and wellness, our player safety is always a top priority for me. One of the things I pride myself on is my relationship with players."\nClark said she can relate to the intense online scrutiny White is facing, adding, "You can have the thickest skin in the world, but sometimes it does get to you."\n"I talked to Steph (White) earlier in the day too, and I think we forget a lot of times we're human and she has feelings and there's moments that are really hard. And sometimes that's just the job you sign up for. But at the same time, it's okay to feel those emotions," Clark said. "I just told her I've been through the same thing. There's been days where I've been really upset . . . And I think our world . . . we love to hate. We love to divide. That's all we want to do. Nobody wants to see each other succeed. And I think that's a really painful thing for myself to watch. I feel like we need to do a better job at uplifting each other. And I can assure you there was no way we were losing this game tonight."\nFollowing Tuesday's win, Cunningham said her and White have a "great" relationship and that the "outside noise" hasn't come between the Fever players or staff.\n"That's what it is to be (on the) Indiana Fever on the staff or as a player. You know when you come here, that's going to be one of the things that's going to try to distract you. But our locker room in there, it's tight and we have each other's backs. Coach loves us," Cunningham added. "Me and Steph are great. Steph is great with all of us. And so it's really the outside noise that's trying to distract us, but we're good."\nCunningham reiterated White's statement, clarifying that her head coach didn't see a replay of the foul.\n"At the end of day, she didn't see the clip," Cunningham said. "And you know what, DiJonai, she is a hell of a player. She's a great defender. And so (White) coached her for, I don't know how many years up in Connecticut. So give her her flowers and she didn't see it and that's okay."\nCunningham added that she is now focused on "trying to keep the main thing the main thing."\nThe USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.\nThis article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Caitlin Clark defends Fever coach Stephanie White after boos