Fever part ways of good person for better

It's hard to fault the Indiana Fever for wanting better in hiring a head coach who can take them to a championship level, and Christie Sides was not going to take them there from their perspective.

Deep down, Christie Sides knew she was on borrowed time as soon as the Indiana Fever won the WNBA Draft Lottery for the right to draft Caitlin Clark as the No. 1 overall pick.

There was no way she would coach Clark long-term. Even if she led the Fever to a first-round playoff upset against the Connecticut Sun, it would not have been enough for her to keep her job.

That day came on Sunday when the Fever fired her despite leading them to the playoffs after a 9-5 post-Olympic break finish that vaulted them in the playoffs.

The Fever were going to find a championship-caliber coach who would capitalize on their opportunity of getting to the pinnacle with Aliyah Boston and Clark on the roster as part of their rookie contracts. This has been a plan going back to last offseason.

It’s hard to blame them here, whether it’s fair or not. The team can’t fool around and waste championship opportunities with Boston and Clark. There’s no guarantee both players will come back once their contracts expire (Clark’s ends in three years and Boston’s ends in a year). There’s no doubt the New York Liberty will do whatever it takes to get the both of them in fielding another super team, so the Fever had to show a sense of urgency here, even if it comes at a good lady’s expense in Sides.

The Fever ownership already made a couple of management changes. The Simon family hired Kelly Krauskopf to oversee the team’s business and basketball operations. They hired Amber Cox from the Dallas Wings to be the Fever’s chief operating officer and general manager. This should have been a hint right there that Sides was as good as gone.

Krauskopf oversaw the Fever winning a WNBA championship in 2012 along with two other WNBA Finals appearances in 2009 and 2015. She certainly has an idea who to hire as the team’s coach.

That would be Stephanie White, who left the Connecticut Sun as their coach. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Annie Costabile reported White would be the preferred coach to lead the Fever. Remember Krauskopf hired White as the Fever assistant coach in 2011 and then promoted her as the head coach in 2015. White also played for the organization when Krauskopf served her first stint with the Fever.

Krauskopf’s task is hiring a head coach who can get the job done. If she feels White is that coach, she should definitely do what it takes to hire her, especially since they both worked well together the first time around. This is no different than when new Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns fired Buck Showalter to bring in Carlos Mendoza as the Mets manager since he feels can share the same vision of operating a team.

With that said, I can’t help but feel for Sides. I don’t know if she is a great coach or not. Her offense was predictable, and she struggled to adjust and use substitution patterns. This is common for young coaches who are establishing themselves in the WNBA. Still, I wish the Fever head coach would get a chance to learn on the job and get even better. I think she could have.

But again, the Fever can’t waste time and hopes Sides figure it out fast. That’s not how it works in a cutthroat league now.

Sides was the victim of a team that wanted a change.

She did some good things here. She somehow kept her team from falling apart after a rough start to the season. She was able to have her players keep their composure despite all the media scrutiny that came with Clark’s rookie journey. She conducted herself with class and grace.

Sides can be successful as head coach in due time. She has done enough to get another chance to coach a WNBA team next season. There are five other WNBA teams (Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles) that will look for a head coach, so her work this season would serve her well. If there’s poetic justice in all this, maybe she gets to be Paige Bueckers’ first pro head coach next season.

She would have loved to coach Clark and lead them to a championship. She felt she earned that shot. It’s hard to argue from her perspective.

Sides served her purpose as a caretaker. She established a foundation of a winning culture. Her teams always played hard. They always play a proper style of basketball by playing defense first.

It’s hard to believe we have seen the last of her coaching in the WNBA.

She still has plenty of chapters to go in what should be a fine coaching career.

At least Sides can proudly say she is part of a fraternity or sorority where she made it by being hired to be fired while making the team better for it.