{"id":15485,"date":"2025-07-22T13:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15485\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T13:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:21:11","slug":"kelsey-plum-sparks-outrage-for-dig-at-team-caitlin-clark-at-wnba-all-star-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/15485\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelsey Plum Sparks Outrage for Dig at Team Caitlin Clark at WNBA All-Star Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> NEED TO KNOW<br \/>\nKelsey Plum&#8217;s postgame comments about Caitlin Clark&#8217;s All-Star team caused backlash from fans Plum took a jab at Team Clark players for not being &#8220;very present&#8221; at a players meeting to discuss wearing &#8220;Pay Us What You Owe Us&#8221; shirts before the gamePlum said she was &#8220;trying to make the situation light&#8221; and applauded the players&#8217; &#8220;united front&#8221; by wearing the shirts<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_2-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> WNBA star <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/sports\/kelsey-plum-recalls-lack-of-representation-for-girls-when-she-was-growing-up\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelsey Plum<\/a> made a comment that rubbed some fans the wrong way after players sent a strong message about their salaries before the league&#8217;s All-Star Game in Indianapolis on Saturday night.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_4-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Before the league&#8217;s brightest stars competed in the 2025 All-Star Game on Saturday, July 19, the players took the court for warm-ups in shirts that read, &#8220;Pay Us What You Owe Us.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_6-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> The message was widely celebrated by fans who support the WNBA stars&#8217; cause, but a comment from Plum, 30, was met with criticism after she seemed to take a dig at <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/caitlin-clark-8640752\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Caitlin Clark<\/a>&#8216;s All-Star squad.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_8-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Clark, 23, served as a team captain for this year&#8217;s All-Star game, which was played at the Indiana Fever&#8217;s home arena, Gainbridge Fieldhouse.\n<\/p>\n<p> WNBA players wearing &#8220;Pay Us What You Owe Us&#8221; shirts on July 19, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Steph Chambers\/Getty<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_11-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> In a postgame press conference alongside Sabrina Ionescu, who played for Team Clark, Plum said the players taking the court in their shirts was &#8220;a very powerful moment&#8221; that had come together just that morning. &#8220;As players, we didn&#8217;t know that that was going to happen. It was a genuine surprise. The t-shirt, as a united front, was determined this morning, that we had a meeting for.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_13-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Then, Plum added, &#8220;Not to tattletale; zero members of Team Clark were very present for that.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_15-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> The comment earned a visible reaction from Ionescu, who rolled her eyes before sarcastically saying, &#8220;That needed to be mentioned.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p> Kelsey Plum on July 19, 2025 in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Gosling\/NBAE\/Getty<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_18-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for<a href=\"https:\/\/forms.dotdashmeredith.com\/people-news-inline\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_20-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Plum then said she was &#8220;trying to make the situation light&#8221; before explaining that the WNBA All-Stars wanted to do something &#8220;that was united and collective.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_22-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> &#8220;I felt it was a very powerful moment and got the point across,&#8221; Plum concluded.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_26-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Fans weren&#8217;t so happy with the comments, calling them &#8220;unnecessary&#8221; and accusing Plum of &#8220;throwing other players under the bus&#8221; during a moment that was meant to be united. &#8220;They\u2019re already showing cracks in this &#8216;united front,&#8217; &#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/zabmoto\/status\/1946972219868934271\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a> one user.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_28-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Another fan <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rendawg90\/status\/1947017864415990069\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a>, &#8220;I don\u2019t think creating any division among players is the right move when discussing this topic that impacts everyone in the league.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_30-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> The Sparks did not immediately return PEOPLE&#8217;S request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Kelsey Plum&#8217;s postgame comments about Caitlin Clark&#8217;s All-Star team caused backlash from fans Plum took&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-15485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}