Caitlin Clark’s Viral Moment with Christie Sides Sparks Fresh Speculation: Is She the Odd One Out?
Fever coach facing pressure during WNBA break
Caitlin Clark and Christie Sides have had their ups and downs in their first season working together in the WNBA. Clark, a superstar from the NCAA’s Iowa Hawkeyes, was the top pick in the WNBA Draft in April. Despite a challenging start in professional basketball, Clark made the league’s All-Star Game in Phoenix. She is likely to win the WNBA Rookie of the Year award at the season’s end and could even finish as the league’s leader in assists per game.
As Clark’s Indiana Fever holds a playoff position with 14 games remaining, speculation about the future of her head coach, Christie Sides, continues. Sides has faced criticism from fans multiple times this season for perceived strategic errors, and even Clark herself has expressed in-game frustration with the second-year coach. With Clark and Sides reuniting during the WNBA’s Olympic break, fans are more intrigued than ever as a critical stretch of games approaches.
Clark is back in action after some time away from the court. The Fever will next play on August 16 against the Phoenix Mercury in a game with potential playoff implications. Practice footage this week shows Indiana’s players looking re-energized and eager to go as they seek their first postseason berth in eight years.
However, a viral video of Clark and Sides chatting away from the action has sparked a frenzy among Fever and WNBA fans, given that the coach and player have not always appeared to be on the same page—especially as the Fever (currently 11-15) began the season with 10 losses in their first 13 games.
One fan on X/Twitter simply wrote, “Sides is not the one,” even though the content of the conversation was not revealed. Another speculated that Clark, spotting the reporter’s camera, wanted “to show how much she and Sides love each other.”
Other replies followed a similar vein—one user suggested Sides was telling Clark not to listen to her, and another questioned why it “always” seemed like Sides was trying to justify her strategies to her star rookie.
Even though Indiana is still in a rebuilding phase, expectations soared once Clark arrived. Making the playoffs would be a huge boost for Sides and the franchise’s future, but missing out could change the equation entirely.
