Indiana Fever Fire Sides, Open Sixth WNBA Coaching Vacancy

The WNBA’s coaching carousel keeps turning.

The Indiana Fever have parted ways with head coach Christie Sides, the team announced Sunday. Sides finished with a 33–47 record over two seasons with the Fever, including a 20–20 record in 2024, good for the sixth seed and the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2016.

Sides’s firing means six WNBA teams have head coaching vacancies—half the league, without including the expansion Golden State Valkyries, who hired former Las Vegas Aces assistant coach Natalie Nakase.

With the arrival of No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark this season—and even top pick Aliyah Boston last year—the spotlight was on Sides to deliver, despite it being her first major head coaching gig. She received a lot of criticism early in the season as the Fever opened the season with a 2–8 record, but the team turned its season enough to become a legitimate test for the title-contending Connecticut Sun in the first round.

Earlier this month, new team president Kelly Krauskopf spoke highly of Sides, especially given the outside noise she faced all season.

“For a young team to make that kind of progress, it’s hard to not be impressed,” Krauskopf said during her introductory press conference.

However, even with the strong finish, the writing may have been on the wall for Sides as the Fever had a major front-office shake-up over the last two months. In early September, president and COO Allison Barber announced she would be stepping down. Krauskopf, who was the franchise’s GM from 2000 to 2017, announced weeks later she would return as team president. 

In early October, the Fever hired Amber Cox away from the Dallas Wings to be their new COO. She was also hired as the team’s new GM, while Lin Dunn moved to a senior advisor role.

Following the announcement of her firing, Sides posted on X: “Leave it better than you found it.”

Coaching Carousel

Other than the Fever, the teams currently without a head coach are the Wings, Chicago Sky, Los Angeles Sparks, Atlanta Dream, and Washington Mystics. The Phoenix Mercury are the only franchise that finished with a .500 or worse record not to fire their head coach this offseason. Nate Tibbetts joined the Mercury this season—and is the highest-paid coach in the WNBA.

The slew of coaching vacancies could present a market shift in the WNBA as teams anticipate an influx of funds from the $2.2 billion media-rights deal that begins in 2026. While WNBA coaching salaries are much higher than those of players, the additional funds and rising reputation of the league gives front offices the opportunity to go after more tenured or prominent head coaches.