Kelsey Plum aka “Plum Dawg” is a smooth left-handed beast on the court. Plum has such a balanced game of scoring, playmaking, and facilitating that reminds me of a prime James Harden. What separates her into her own category along with those skills is that she is willing to go above and beyond to give it her all on the court and it shows with her nickname “Plum Dawg.” She’s a known gym rat that is always looking to get better by working on her game and overall conditioning each and every year to keep her a step above the competition.
Plum is another superstar from California that emerged onto the basketball scene as a problem for other teams. Before the arrival of Caitlin Clark in college, Plum had the lead for most points at the collegiate level with 3,527 points in just 139 games at the University of Washington. During her time at Washington from 2013-2017, Plum established herself as one of the best players in the history of women’s college basketball. Aside from breaking the NCAA Division I women’s basketball all-time scoring record during her Senior year in 2017, she also set the single-season scoring record with 1,109 points.
Her innate scoring ability earned her numerous awards, including the prestigious Naismith College Player of the Year Award, the Wooden Award, and the Wade Trophy in 2017. Plum was also a consensus All-American and was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year. As her illustrious college career concluded she was selected as the first overall pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft by the San Antonio Stars which are now known as the Las Vegas Aces. In her rookie season, Plum faced some challenges adjusting to the professional game, but soon she quickly found her footing and became a key contributor for the Aces. As she gained more professional experience, her game started to flourish, as it illuminated the Washington Huskie version of her game and she’s been taking it to new heights.
As of now, Plum has developed into one of the most reliable guards in the WNBA when it comes to being a shot maker and creator as well as an irritant on the defensive end. Plum gave the Aces a huge lift in their 2020 WNBA Finals run which was ultimately the catalyst for their future runs that ended in back-to-back Championships in 2022 and 2023.
Plum also has quite the international resume when it comes to representing the United States. She won a gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the 3×3 basketball team. Plum was included on this year’s Olympic Team which gave her the opportunity to earn her first Gold Medal in 5v5 play. Her dawg mentality and ability to perform on the biggest stages, both domestically and internationally, has solidified her reputation as one of the top players in the world. As she comes into the Unrivaled League, it’s going to be a challenge for other players to keep her from having a large impact on both ends due to her motor and bucket-getting capability.
