Los Angeles Sparks star Kelsey Plum said she was joking when she took a verbal shot at Caitlin Clark and her team at the All-Star Game last month, comments that drew significant pushback.
“I made a really bad joke,” Plum said on Sue Bird’s “Bird’s Eye View” podcast that dropped Friday.
Plum said she was trying to have fun with Team Clark at the All-Star Game in Indianapolis on July 19 when she said Clark’s side didn’t show up for that morning meeting to discuss collective bargaining agreement talks. The union and the WNBA are in the midst of negotiations, and all the players in the All-Star Game wore T-shirts that read, “Pay Us What You Owe Us,” including Clark.
Plum said at the post-game news conference the players decided that morning to wear the shirts, but “zero members of Team Clark were very present for that.”
There was especially a big blowback on social media toward Plum, who said her intention was to bring levity to a serious topic but misread the room.
“I was making a joke they were hungover even though our team nickname was ‘Hungover,’” Plum said. “I was like, ‘At least we made it.’ Obviously, we were all on the same page. We all wore the shirts. We’re all unified. I think if anything I was more discouraged because I felt like (the comments) took away from the moment of what we were trying to do.”
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