Kelsey Plum Makes Pointed Caitlin Clark Joke With Sabrina Ionescu And WNBA Fans Are Not Amused

Kelsey Plum has put her foot in her mouth and is catching flak from Caitlin Clark and other WNBA players' fans.

Kelsey Plum Makes Pointed Caitlin Clark Joke With Sabrina Ionescu And WNBA Fans Are Not Amused

Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Plum (FS Image)

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One of the running situations in women’s basketball and the WNBA community has been the marginalization of Caitlin Clark and her burgeoning legion of fans that she has brought to the league. The Iowa sensation became a cultural phenomenon as she broke record after record in the NCAA. When she came to the WNBA, the league wasn’t prepared to be put under the microscope that she’s been under.

This has led to a lot of angst and posturing between the old guard – people who’ve been fans of the league since before her advent – and the new fans, who have questioned the older players and fans for many of the practices and cultural quirks that seem to be handicapping their reach. The established WNBA players did not take kindly to Caitlin Clark on or off the court during her rookie season in the league.

Although the temperature seems to have cooled a bit in the past few weeks and the 2025 season in general, there still are quite a few events that could be avoided, given the bad and needless connotations that WNBA fans (old and new) can give to them. One such incident took place during the All-Star game press conference at Indianapolis yesterday after the game.

Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum shared the media stage to answer questions about the players’ moves regarding the upcoming CBA deliberations. Plum, who is an established star now playing her ninth WNBA season, tried to put together a tongue-in-cheek moment. However, her delivery of the joke was not slick and she got her joke about Caitlin Clark and her All-Star teammates in a very uncomedic fashion as she said:

It was a very powerful moment. As players, we didn’t know that that was going to happen. It was a genuine surprise. The tee shirt was determined this morning. Not to tattletale: 0 members of Team Clark were very present for that.

WNBA fans call out Kelsey Plum for her crude Caitlin Clark joke

Given how there is already a lot of animosity and bad blood between new and older WNBA fans, what Plum did was something that has only worsened the divide in many ways between these two factions. At a time when Plum could easily have been a uniting force between these two camps that are equally important to the WNBA’s success and future prospects, she chose to be a divisive influence.

Caitlin Clark with Sabrina Ionescu and A'ja Wilson
Caitlin Clark with Sabrina Ionescu and A’ja Wilson (Image via Open Source/X)

This was not lost on the fans, who called her out for not being a ‘girls’ girl’ in the way she joked about Clark and her teammates despite their stake in bringing the league into profitability.

Even former NBA player and Chicago Bulls announcer Stacey King was nonplussed by the completely unnecessary shot taken by Kelsey Plum at the press conference. He saw first-hand how Michael Jordan was an ambassador for the NBA, and he can contrast how the elder statesmen of the WNBA are not able to get on board with the face of the league and continue taking sly shots at Caitlin Clark with no provocation.

The WNBA senior brass really does need to get its act together if they want to sustain interest and build it around players not named Caitlin Clark. Acting in this manner endears them to no one and opens them up to criticism that they need not face.

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