LOS ANGELES — As Kelsey Plum entered her new basketball dwelling, the cameras had been already ready to comply with her each transfer. The Jumbotron in Crypto.com Enviornment confirmed her donning the Sparks Jersey, her title littered all around the constructing and as she approached the rostrum, and a hype video performed within the background. The group of media members in attendance truly applauded as she was launched (sometimes a fake pas within the journalism trade).
However that’s how large of a star Plum is already poised to be in Los Angeles, the place her first day was a full showcase of the bubbly persona she brings alongside along with her star energy. She made jokes concerning the site visitors, thanked the media for being in attendance and appeared shocked that her introductory press convention was worthy of being televised dwell.
“I’m so grateful to be right here,” Plum stated. “I’m simply in awe.”
However regardless of her humility, Plum is worthy of the scrutiny. On day one, she enters this group as by far probably the most completed participant on the roster. She has made the WNBA All-Star group the final three seasons, received two titles, was the Sixth Lady of the 12 months again in 2021, and helped Crew USA win Olympic Gold this previous summer season in Paris.
The Sparks buying and selling their No. 2 choose to amass Plum is a transparent indicator that they’re in win-now mode regardless of having missed the playoffs the final 4 seasons.
“We would have liked to enhance our backcourt,” Sparks common supervisor Raegan Pebley stated.
This was a transparent want for this group, as they haven’t had constant play from that place since Chelsea Grey’s departure in 2020. It’s no coincidence that was additionally the final time the Sparks have been to the playoffs. The group felt Plum may influence them in an identical technique to her now-former Aces teammate, instantly vaulting them to competitiveness in a method no rookie guard can in the beginning of the upcoming WNBA season.
“The type of basketball that we wish to play, and the usual of excellence that the L.A. Sparks is and can proceed to be, we simply saved feeling like all roads pointed to Kelsey,” Pebley stated. “And we had zero hesitation in doing what it took to ensure Kelsey was sitting proper right here right this moment.”
Now Plum will maintain the keys to this Sparks offense, and he or she didn’t maintain again relating to what having the ball in her palms may imply for this group.
“I’ve all the time been sort of shifted to the two guard due to my capability to shoot and play off the ball,” Plum stated. “Which is nice, however I additionally suppose in coach’s system, it’s a bit of bit extra positionless and we’ll be capable to see much more my capability to get individuals concerned. I plan to be positively top-five in assists this 12 months and it’s as a result of I get the chance to do it.”
Plum averaged 4.2 assists final season. To be within the high 5 in that class within the WNBA, she must leap as much as 6.2 dimes per sport. That’s not a gargantuan process, however it’s nonetheless a major enchancment.
How will she get there? Easy: feeding the ball to a frontcourt that she feels is on the rise.
“I feel Cam [Cameron Brink] is a Defensive Participant of the 12 months simply ready to brew,” Plum stated. “Rickea [Jackson] is an All-Star. Rae Burrell’s great expertise and I feel that she will be probably the greatest two-way guards within the league. So once you take a look at the flexibility, everybody can shoot, they’ll play a number of positions, they’ll guard a number of positions they usually’re all opponents.
“They wish to win, they wish to be higher, they wish to be nice. That, to me, actually stood out. On this league, your bigs will take you locations. I imply for those who take a look at championship groups down the road, normally your 3 [and] 4 are instrumental in making a run to a championship. Simply that, it’s one of the best frontcourt within the league and it’s not even shut.”
The concept is for Plum to take this younger core to that subsequent stage. She will be the connector to that turns potential into manufacturing and will get the Sparks out of the underside of the WNBA standings and again into competition.
Plum may be in her early days as a Spark, however she’s already feeling a reference to this neighborhood.
“I simply felt like an amazing sense of affection, I really feel like open arms. I used to be truly within the airport this morning and I used to be simply getting some water and the man was like, ‘Go Sparks!’ I really feel that, so I’m enthusiastic about that as a result of I actually do really feel like individuals have sort of already wrapped their arms round me. I haven’t even performed a sport but. Simply the welcoming of my teammates and coach and Raegan and possession. I really feel I really feel very cherished already.”
And that reference to L.A. extends past LAX workers and members of the Sparks. She even has connections with the late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who was identified for being a big advocate for the ladies’s sport.
Kobe gave his flowers to the gamers making an influence each probability he had. This included Plum, whom he congratulated by way of Twitter after she broke the NCAA all-time scoring report as a Washington Huskie.
She reciprocated that love, calling him a “true goat.”
After the presser, Plum spoke solely with Breakaway a few second she had with Kobe one-on-one years later.
“I acquired to satisfy Kobe,” Plum instructed Breakaway. “He truly took his daughter and their AAU group to Vegas to observe us play. This was years in the past and I simply keep in mind assembly him and it was cool. He stated that certainly one of his gamers on his group is a lefty, and so he stated, ‘I’ve been exhibiting her your movie.’ and that to me was like, dude, day made, life made.
“However I grew up watching Kobe with my dad at a pizza parlor and simply actually excited to have the ability to play right here on this historic constructing. I nonetheless name it Staples. It’s similar to the way it’s sunken in my mind, however he’s certainly one of my favourite gamers of all time and it simply means loads to have the ability to be right here in LA.”
The Sparks have a participant on their roster now that we all know is Kobe-approved.
For somebody who grew up in Poway, California — simply two hours south of Los Angeles in San Diego County — it doesn’t get a lot cooler than figuring out that your sport was at a stage that Kobe deemed adequate to point out his gamers for instance of find out how to play basketball.
All of it makes this a full-circle second for Plum. Now she’s enjoying within the space she lived in and can be capable to create her personal recollections contained in the constructing that Kobe constructed.
There will likely be youngsters in pizza parlors throughout California carrying Plum jerseys, watching her usher in a brand new period of Sparks basketball. The remaining job for Plum to complete? Do what the greats like Kobe have executed and lift a banner inside Crypto. The constructing’s title might have modified, however the usual stays the identical: win titles, increase banners and go away a legacy.