Two Indiana Fever All-Stars spent Thursday publicly defending their head coach, which tells you exactly how loud Tuesday night got. Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell each said they were disappointed by the boos that came down on Stephanie White during pregame introductions at the Fever's home game, and the reporting out of Indianapolis has both of them landing on the same side of it. Not a shrug. Not a diplomatic non-answer. Support, said out loud, with names attached.

That part matters more than the noise itself. Crowds boo. Fan bases in this league have gotten louder and more invested every year, and that is mostly a wonderful development, right up until it lands on one person standing at midcourt with a microphone pointed at her. What is rare is the response. When a room has actually turned on a coach, you do not get two of the best players on the roster stepping forward two days later to say the building got it wrong. You get silence, sourced quotes, and a lot of nobody saying anything. Indiana gave the opposite.

The history underneath this is what makes it sting. White is not a stranger who parachuted into Indianapolis. She played in this state, she coached this franchise before, and she had the Fever on the floor in the 2015 Finals against Minnesota, a series that went the full five games before the Lynx closed it out. She left, built a reputation elsewhere, and came back. Booing her at introductions is booing a piece of the building's own history, and I suspect a chunk of that crowd knew it before they got to the parking lot.

from the almanac: that 2015 Indiana team took the eventual champion to a deciding game, which is the kind of thing a fan base usually keeps on the wall rather than in the trash.

What comes next is immediate. Dallas is in Indianapolis on Friday night, 7:30 ET, and White will be introduced to the same crowd in the same arena, two nights removed from this. That introduction is the whole story right now. If the boos come back, this becomes a season-long thing that follows a team already carrying enough. If the building applauds, Boston and Mitchell did more for their coach in one Thursday than any statement from the front office could.

I will be listening to the first ninety seconds Friday night. That is where you find out what this fan base actually decided.