Los Angeles Sparks All-Star Kelsey Plum couldn’t help but “tattletale” on some of the players after the WNBA All-Star game ended on Saturday.
During her postgame press conference, Plum, who was on Napheesa Collier’s team, explained that members of Caitlin Clark’s team (Collier and Clark were the captains of their respective teams) weren’t very present when both teams met before the game to coordinate wearing their warmup shirts with the message: “Pay us what you owe us.”
“It was a very powerful moment. As players, we didn’t know that that was going to happen. It was a genuine surprise,” Plum said of the fans chanting “pay them” while WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was speaking on the court after Saturday’s game ended.
“The T-shirt was determined this morning. Not to tattletale, but zero members of Team Clark were very present for that.”
Liberty All-Star Sabrina Ionescu, who was on Team Clark, looked surprised as she was sitting alongside Plum at the press conference.
“That really needed to be mentioned,” Ionescu said sarcastically as she and Plum laughed.
“I’m trying to make the situation light, OK,” added Plum, who is the vice president of the WNBPA.
It was clear Ionescu wasn’t expecting that from Plum, who went on to explain the players wanted to be united in their message.
“I think it was just all of us getting on the page before the game and we wanted to do something that was just united and collective. I thought that was a vert powerful moment and it got the point across. And sometimes, you don’t have to say anything.”
While Clark was present all weekend, she was unable to play in the game due to a groin injury.
All of the players on Team Clark and Team Collier warmed up for Saturday night’s WNBA All-Star Game in black shirts with the message, “Pay us what you owe us,” with the WNBPA logo amid ongoing CBA negotiations.
They decided on the shirts after the players and the league failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement at an in-person meeting Thursday.
The players have been vocal about wanting to be paid more.
“We get a very tiny percentage of all the money that’s made through the WNBA, which obviously is made through the entertainment we provide,” Collier said on the decision to wear the shirts. “So we want a fair and reasonable percentage of that.”
