Though there has been reported interest from other teams in the WNBA, Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White said Thursday that her only focus right now is caring for her loved ones as she deals with a family emergency.
“Just being here for my family, getting through this, that’s my priority,” White said, holding back tears. “I’m not having conversations right now about anything outside of my family. I’m solely focused on on my family and getting through this tough time.”
White, in her second season with the Sun, led the team to a 28-12 record and its eighth consecutive appearance in the WNBA semifinals in 2024. Connecticut was eliminated from the postseason by the Minnesota Lynx in a 3-2 series on Oct. 8, and the rest of the team met with media for exit interviews via Zoom two days after the Game 5 loss. White was also scheduled to speak, but her news conference was rescheduled for Thursday because of the undisclosed family emergency.
White’s partner Lisa Salters, a sideline reporter for ESPN, was also absent from this week’s Monday Night Football broadcast “tending to a personal matter” according to play-by-play announcer Joe Buck.
Three WNBA teams currently have open head coaching jobs: The Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky and Los Angeles Sparks. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that White is a “sought-after candidate” for vacancies around the league including Chicago’s, adding that she is under contract with Connecticut until at least 2025. White is from Indiana and previously served as an assistant coach for the Sky from 2007-10, but the organization is in a dramatically different place from the Sun, facing a major rebuild with an inexperienced core after going through five coaches in the last 10 years. The Dream and Sparks are also challenging openings: Atlanta hasn’t had a winning season since 2018, and L.A. has missed the playoffs four years in a row.
Though White’s departure does not seem imminent, there will be plenty of high-profile opportunities in the next two seasons. The WNBA will welcome expansion teams in Portland and Toronto in 2026, and every coach fired in 2024 had been at their job for three seasons or less, so turnover can happen quickly.
Expansion will also mean major changes to existing rosters, beginning with the Golden State Valkyries‘ expansion draft on Dec. 6 ahead of the 2025 season. The Sun have five unrestricted free agents entering 2025 including all three of its All-Stars, and only forward Alyssa Thomas is eligible to receive a core designation. DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones are both likely to explore other options — Bonner reportedly spoke to the Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm during her 2024 free agency — and White said she knows that after five years, the team may not be able to keep its ‘big three’ together much longer.
“It’s something that that you want, but we also understand the realities of of this business,” White said. “This is a core group that’s been together for a long time … and they have wanted to continue to build on their legacy with the Connecticut Sun. We all understand that we would like that to happen, but the reality of the situation is, you never know. Every year a team is going to be different. Every year opportunities arise through free agency and other things that happen, so we’re thankful for the time that we’ve had, and we’ll take the next steps whenever they present themselves.”
