The WNBA All-Star Game made headlines last month when every player donned a “Pay Us What You Owe Us” T-shirt before the game in a show of solidarity as CBA negotiations drag on. Then Kelsey Plum generated controversy after the game.
Speaking to reporters in the wake of a 151-131 win for her Team Collier side, Plum mentioned that “Zero members of Team Clark were very present” for a meeting to discuss the shirts. She treated it as a joke, laughing with teammate Sabrina Ionescu who sardonically added, “That really needed to be mentioned.”
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That comment took on enough of a life of its own that the Los Angeles Sparks star addressed the matter during an appearance on Sue Bird’s “Bird’s Eye View” podcast published Friday.
Bird brought up the matter by describing the comment as a “joke” about Plum’s opponents being hungover that “just got twisted,” to which Plum agreed. She conceded it might not have been the best-timed joke given the gravity of the situation, lamenting the backlash’s effect on the conversation:
“I made a bad joke. I made a really bad joke … And I should have — like, hindsight’s 20/20, because of the shirts, because of the fans — I should have known it was a way more serious moment than a typical All-Star Game, because I went into that press conference very, like, happy-go-lucky we won, you know? Had a great weekend, my family’s here, it was just a great time.
“The questions came in, and it was like, ‘CBA, this, this, this.’ Honestly. Birdie, it was like, ‘Hey, Team Clark, they didn’t make it to the meeting either.’ Just making a joke that they were hungover, trying to make the room lighter … I was making a joke that they were hungover, even though our team nickname was ‘hungover.’ So I was like, ‘At least we made it.’
“Obviously, we’re all on the same page. We all wore the shirts. Like, we’re all unified. I think, if anything, I was just more discouraged because I felt like it took away from the moment of what we were trying to do. You don’t even get to respond and if you do, you seem defensive.”
Plum is among the leaders of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association as its first vice president, with only president Nneka Ogwumike ranking ahead of her on the players’ side.
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The union and league are only a few months away from the expiration of the current CBA on Oct. 31. If they can’t figure out a new agreement by then, they will be facing a work stoppage that could threaten the 2026 season. Even before breaking out the shirts, the players were openly unhappy with the state of the negotiations, especially with the league about to start bringing in $200 million in annual television money with its new deals.
A two-time WNBA champion with the Las Vegas Aces, Plum is in her first season with the Sparks and currently ranks in the top 5 of the league in points, assists and 3-pointers made per game.