{"id":707321,"date":"2026-06-01T07:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/707321\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T07:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:09:09","slug":"so-embarrassing-wnba-world-rips-skip-bayless-for-perpetuating-clickbait-with-fake-stephanie-white-firing-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/707321\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018So Embarrassing\u2019 \u2014 WNBA World Rips Skip Bayless for \u2018Perpetuating Clickbait\u2019 With Fake Stephanie White Firing Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indiana Fever dropped a 100-84 decision to the Portland Fire<\/a> on Saturday night, bringing their record to 4-4. Caitlin Clark<\/a> spent extended stretches battling severe foul trouble, racking up 5 fouls in 22 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

While Clark finished with 6 points and 6 assists, a heated verbal exchange between her and head coach Stephanie White broke out on the bench, sparking controversy.<\/p>\n

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The sideline tension became a target for national talking heads seeking cheap engagement, with Skip Bayless drawing attention and criticism for perpetuating a false report about White.<\/p>\n

Skip Bayless Draws Backlash for Fake Stephanie White Firing Rumor<\/p>\n

Following the argument between Clark and White, the Fever head coach opted to bench her star guard in favor of Raven Johnson.<\/p>\n

While there was plenty of debate around this incident, with some of the Clark faithful pointing to chemistry issues with White, Bayless grabbed the limelight after sharing a false update.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo surprise: Stephanie White reportedly out after repeated in-game clashes with Caitlin Clark. Not saying White was wrong \u2013 but YOU CAN\u2019T SHOW UP THE FACE OF THE LEAGUE ON CAMERA. Caitlin obviously wants a favorite of hers from Iowa, Jan Jensen. But no way Jensen can coach both,\u201d Bayless posted.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Although the Caitlin Clark-Stephanie White fallout rumor mill has been in full flow in recent weeks, the fabricated report drew intense criticism from league experts and fans.<\/p>\n

Chloe Peterson of the IndyStar delivered a definitive correction<\/a> soon after, clarifying that the Fever front office has absolutely not made any changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those that have seen Skip Bayless\u2019 tweet about reports of Stephanie White being let go from the Fever: I\u2019m told there is absolutely no validity to that report,\u201d Peterson wrote. \u201cStephanie White is still the head coach in Indiana.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Alexa Philippou<\/a> followed suit, commenting, \u201cThis is completely untrue \u2014 and that\u2019s straight from the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cDo you have a real source here or are you just perpetuating the click bait?\u201d one user commented.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cStay in your lane. This clearly isn\u2019t it,\u201d another bluntly remarked.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cthe way his geriatric a** probably believed a fake facebook headline but whats alarming is how he says \u2018no surprise\u2019 no no it would be a VERY big surprise if the league actually did the right and hard thing. but media nba personalities think it\u2019s obvious\u270c\ufe0fso embarrassing for us,\u201d one account posted.<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, White addressed the issue directly, explaining that the decisions were purely game management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAB [Aliyah Boston<\/a>] is still in a minutes restriction, so that\u2019s why she\u2019s coming out, and that\u2019s typically around the same time that we\u2019ve taken Caitlin out before\u2026 that\u2019s been our typical substitution pattern,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

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SEE ALSO: \u2018This Is Too Disruptive\u2019 \u2014 Cheryl Miller Sends Clear Message After Stephanie White, Caitlin Clark\u2019s Frustrated Courtside Incident<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite her defensive struggles and the recent shooting slump, Clark remains the driving force behind the Fever\u2019s success, averaging 20.1 points, 8.1 assists, and 4.0 rebounds so far.<\/p>\n

And Indiana must clean up its defensive rotations immediately to avoid a slip in the standings when it takes on the Atlanta Dream<\/a> this Thursday.<\/p>\n

As is the case in sports, the hysterical narratives about the Clark-White disconnect will disappear as soon as the team starts stringing consecutive stops on defense and gets into a winning rhythm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Fever dropped a 100-84 decision to the Portland Fire on Saturday night, bringing their record to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4655,732,49,735,48,3459,2803,257087,104252,20801,82,2807,630],"class_list":["post-707321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aliyah-boston","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-canada","tag-dallas-wings","tag-indiana-fever","tag-jan-jensen","tag-portland-fire","tag-skip-bayless","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}