Why Christie Sides would still be Indiana Fever head coach if not for Caitlin Clark

The Indiana Fever decided to part ways with head coach Christie Sides after the 2024 WNBA season. It was an intriguing decision to say the least, but the Fever appeared motivated to make an immediate push for Stephanie White. Sides might still be the head coach in Indiana if it wasn’t for Caitlin Clark’s presence with the team. All statistics in the gallery are sourced from Basketball Reference.

The Indiana Fever lost eight of their first nine games to start the 2024 WNBA season. If there was ever a time for fans to call for Christie Sides’ job, it would have been after that dreadful beginning to the campaign.

The Next Hoops’ website pointed out that Indiana played its first 7 games in 12 days, which would have been difficult for any coach to navigate through. Sides said in that stretch, “Once we can get through these games, maybe get a few practices, that’s going to help.”

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It turns out Sides was right. The team went on to win 7 out of their next 11 games, and the feeling around the team completely flipped thanks to their resilience. Caitlin Clark told Deadspin, “I think resilience is one of the biggest ways that we’ve improved over the course of the year.”

Sides deserves a tremendous amount of credit for keeping a struggling bunch together during a tumultuous time. The achievement is more impressive when considering the amount of attention her team received during the season.

While the group deserves praise for sticking together, it became clear that Sides had another legitimate challenge on her hands. Clark’s competitive fire had sometimes spilled over the edge, which cost her team throughout the course of the year.

Clark received six technical fouls throughout the course of the WNBA season, which put her one away from an automatic suspension. Clark told CBS Sports, “I think I could’ve done a better job keeping my emotions in check, but at the same time, like, really?” The Fever superstar was often miffed by the technical fouls she was called for.

It was a bit of a running joke, but the Fever created a “de-escalation committee” in order to keep Clark from boiling over. Sports Illustrated covered the quirky narrative, sharing Aliyah Boston’s Instagram, which stated that Clark’s teammates “work overtime” to keep her from berating the officials.

While the de-escalation committee was a jovial development, Clark’s inability to remain calm put Christie Sides in a real bind. Sides didn’t want to take her best player’s aggressive mentality away, but she also didn’t seem to be getting through to Clark with regard to her detrimental behavior. This might be one reason why Sides no longer has a head coaching job.

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Whether it’s the WNBA, the NBA, or any professional sport, the rules become a bit different when a generational talent is involved. Clark certainly fits into that category, which means that the Fever were not inclined to waste a single moment of her prime seasons.

That means that even though Sides was able to pull the team together to make the postseason, Indiana management is thinking big when it comes to Clark. Making the postseason simply isn’t going to cut it; the Fever want to be competing for championships on an annual basis.

Fever president of basketball operations Kelly Krauskopf said in a statement, “While decisions like these are never easy, it is also imperative that we remain bold and assertive in the pursuit of our goals, which includes maximizing our talent and bringing another WNBA championship back to Indiana.”

We’ve seen things like this unfold in professional basketball before. Doug Collins coached the Chicago Bulls in the late 1980s, and took them to playoffs in three consecutive seasons. However, with an ascending Michael Jordan on the roster, it wasn’t good enough, and the team tabbed Phil Jackson as head coach. The rest, as they say, is history.

Even if the Fever had preconceived notions of dismissing Sides after the regular season, a strong postseason performance might have made management think twice. Their decision might have been made a little bit easier considering that the Fever were swept out of the playoffs by the Connecticut Sun.

It wasn’t just that the Fever fell to the Sun in an unforgiving two-game sweep; it’s that they didn’t seem to be able to compete with Connecticut. The Sun are a little more seasoned when it comes to postseason games, but Sides didn’t really have an adjustment to slow down their momentum.

These factors all contributed to Sides losing her job as head coach of the Fever. As it turned out, Indiana had their next coach in their sights during the postseason quite literally. White was coaching the Sun, and frankly seemed to outcoach Sides when it mattered most.

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