The Connecticut Sun announced on Monday that they have parted with head coach Stephanie White.
“We parted on good terms because some of (White’s) decision-making process was not just about basketball,” Connecticut Sun president Jen Rizzotti told ESPN.
White went 55-25 with Connecticut, steering the Sun to 27-13 and 28-12 regular season marks each of the past two seasons. Connecticut earned the No. 3 seed and advanced to the WNBA Semifinals each of the past two campaigns.
This move by the Sun clears the way for White’s reported return as head coach of the Indiana Fever. After Indiana fired former head coach Christie Sides on Sunday morning, multiple sources indicated to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Annie Costabile that White was expected to be the Fever’s next head coach.
White was previously the head coach of the Indiana Fever during the 2015 and 2016 WNBA seasons. In 2015, White led the Fever to the WNBA Finals. In 2016, Indiana advanced back to the WNBA Playoffs.
White compiled 20-14 and 17-17 regular-season records with the Fever during the 2015 and 2016 WNBA seasons. White also played four WNBA seasons with the Fever from 2000-04.
White has close ties to Indiana senior advisor Lin Dunn and new Fever president of basketball and business operations Kelly Krauskopf. After starting her WNBA coaching career as an assistant with the Chicago Sky from 2007-10, White became an assistant coach for Indiana from 2011-14 under Dunn.
Then, Krauskopf, who was the Fever’s president from 2000-18, gave White her first WNBA head coaching gig with the Fever in 2015 after Dunn retired from coaching.
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