Kelsey Plum isn’t planning to trade in her WNBA jersey for a comedy gig anytime soon.
Recently, she joked about missing a meeting to don a viral “borrow us for us” shirt at the All-Star Game in July, poking fun at Caitlyn Clark and her “Team Clark” crew.
“Yeah, I made a bad joke. Really bad,” Plum admitted with a chuckle during the “Bird Eye View” podcast. “Tough stuff.”
During this year’s All-Star Festival, she generated buzz by commenting about Clark and her teammates in an unexpected moment.
This year’s match featured Team Clark, led by Clark herself, and Team Collier, headed by Naphesa Collier, which included Plum.
At the All-Star event, she wore a shirt advocating for better compensation in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. Fans responded by chanting “Payment” after the game.
“It was quite a moment. As a player, I had no idea it was going to turn out like that. I think it caught everyone off guard,” Plum reflected after the game.
“It was literally a last-minute decision to wear the United Front T-shirt. It was so present for that moment, and it wasn’t about the Tuttletails, just the Zero members of Team Clark,” she added.
She laughed as she recounted her “very present” remark, and Liberty player Sabrina Ionescu playfully reacted beside her.
“There’s really no need to bring that up,” Ionescu commented.
To which Plum replied, “I was just trying to lighten the mood, okay?”
Fast forward more than a month, and Plum reflected on how she might have misread the situation.
“In retrospect, fans should’ve seen it as a serious moment given the shirt. It should’ve been clear it was more than just your usual All-Star game,” she noted.
“I was in a very cheerful mood at that press conference, celebrating a great weekend with my family. It was a really good time,” she added.
Plum later explained that her jokes about Team Clark stemmed from her feeling a bit hungover that day.
“When questions came up about the CBA, I joked, ‘Hey, Team Clark didn’t even show up to the meeting!’ I was just trying to keep things light,” David said. “I was kidding, even though our team’s nickname is ‘hangovers.’ At least we were there, and obviously, we were all aligned wearing the shirts.”
The fallout from her comments didn’t paint her in the best light, and she realized it could be challenging to address it.
“You can’t really respond without coming off defensive, so I chose not to say anything,” Plum noted. “You just have to let it roll off. Thick skin, right?”
The 30-year-old Plum is averaging 20.3 points and 6.1 assists per game for the Sparks, who currently hold a 16-17 record, ranking ninth in the league.
