INDIANAPOLIS — A champion has returned to the WNBA, and he’s roaming the sidelines at Indiana Fever practices.
Gary Kloppenburg, the head coach of the 2020 title-winning Seattle Storm, officially re-joined the Fever as a coaching advisor in early July. The team knew a shake-up was coming — assistant coach Karima Christmas-Kelly was preparing for the birth of her second child and thus approaching maternity leave. They needed someone else on the sidelines, and Kloppenburg was called in for support.
“(Fever head coach Stephanie White) was like, ‘Hey, you want to come up, just be another set of eyes and help?'” Kloppenburg told The IX Sports. “And I say, ‘Well, why not?'”
Kloppenburg’s daughter, Carlotta, is the head women’s basketball coach at Point Loma Nazarene University, and Gary will spend time helping that team in the offseason. That’s part of his basketball life these days. So is helping the Fever. His role with the franchise was in scouting before being called up to help on White’s staff, a role he is very familiar with.
In 2011, White and Kloppenburg were both assistants for the Fever under head coach Lin Dunn. They were reunited with the franchise in 2015 and 2016 — this time, White was the head coach. And she could lean on Kloppenburg’s experience. In between their first two coaching stints with the Fever, Kloppenburg took over as the head coach of the Tusla Shock.
White’s 2015 Fever reached the WNBA Finals before falling in the championship series. Her staff was sharp. And White learned a lot in that season, which was her first as a WNBA head coach.
“I’ve worked with Gary for a number of years, the first time I was here with the Fever,” White said. “Most of what we do defensively has come from his teachings. For him to be able to come on board… for him to be able to be a resource, not just during that period (when Christmas-Kelly is out) of time, but also during the World Cup break when I’m going to be gone… I think it’s really good.”
Rep The IX Sports at your next game!
Shop the logo collection or special “Women’s Sports are Front Page News” collection now on Shopify.
Even before Kloppenburg was moved into his more prominent role, White used him as an asset. It made good sense to bring him in on an interim basis if he was available and interested. And with Christmas-Kelly now officially out on maternity leave, Kloppenburg is in the fold, typically in a behind-the-bench setting. Last night, in a win over the Toronto Tempo, he was seated in front of the bench with both Christmas-Kelly and her husband, Fever assistant coach Austin Kelly, away from the team.
Most of the time, as noted above, Kloppenburg is quietly roaming and observing. He’ll sit across from the team as they stretch, then watch as White or Briann January lead drills.
“I’m kind of like a sounding board,” Kloppenburg said. “One thing I guess I do have is experience now, just knowing the league and having a pretty good foundation, at least defensively, of what (the Fever) want to do. So that’s the main thing, just try to be there to help.”
Star guard Kelsey Mitchell was on the Fever in 2022 when Kloppenburg was an assistant coach. She knows what that knowledge foundation can do for the team better than most.
“I love Klopp. Klopp is like our secret sauce, man. Seriously, the success that Seattle had in those times is because of people like Klopp,” Mitchell explained. “Even though he’s silent and he just walks around without people knowing who he is, he has brains out of this world. Defensively, he just wants us to be great.”
Mitchell shared that Kloppenburg seeps in with his knowledge during the course of practice. Because he interjects less frequently, it’s more meaningful when he speaks up. His championship experience pours right into the players.
He’s been around for some of the Fever’s best-ever seasons. Beyond Kloppenburg’s 2020 title, he reached the WNBA Finals as an assistant with the Fever in both 2009 and 2015, and with the Storm in 2018. That Seattle team also won the WNBA championship.
Kloppenburg has been on some excellent coaching staffs and believes the Fever have one right now. He said the current young group is conscientious and described them as “locked in.”
“It’s fun. I love it. It’s a different perspective sitting behind the bench there,” Kloppenburg said. “They’re a really good, really outstanding staff. So again, I just try to help them out, back them up.”
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
One day when Austin Kelly was gone from practice, White was in charge of running the team’s offensive execution in their film session. That’s not her typical role. In that aforementioned Tempo game, one that Kelly also missed, White took more ownership of the offense. With White’s attention shifted, Kloppenburg handled the defensive side of things.
The Fever won 101-95, extending their winning streak to five games. “Different voices, for sure,” White said of the coaching staff shifting around. Assistants Tully Bevilaqua, Keith Porter, and Rob Dosier all have expanded roles right now as well. Even January is more involved.
Kloppenburg’s main job is to be that different voice on that defensive end. His title-winning Storm team was first in defensive rating, and they finished second in defensive rating when he was an assistant in the 2018 championship run. It’s what he is most known for as a coach.
“He’s definitely like a little more quiet when we’re in a full team setting. But when you get him one-on-one, he’s obviously very knowledgeable about the game,” star guard Caitlin Clark said. “Super positive and super uplifting… It’s just amazing to have somebody else in the locker room that’s been through this before, knows what it takes, and is also just another vice for Steph to just bounce ideas off of.”
Clark added that it has been fun for her to get to know a league legend. So as he patrols the sidelines of practice, hushed in volume and hard to notice, that isn’t Kloppenburg avoiding his duties. Rather, that’s exactly how he helps the Fever stay the course as they navigate a temporarily changing coaching reality.
Thanks,
What’s Klopp been up to in september? Avoiding January’s elbows?