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Kelsey Plum Sets Record Straight on Viral Caitlin Clark WNBA All-Star Game Defense

Los Angeles Sparks star Kelsey Plum opened up about the tight defense she played on Caitlin Clark in the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game.
Grant Young|
Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Team WNBA guard Caitlin Clark (22) against USA Women's National Team player Kelsey Plum (5) at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Team WNBA guard Caitlin Clark (22) against USA Women's National Team player Kelsey Plum (5) at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

While there were several moments from the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game on July 20, 2024, that drew a ton of attention, the most viral clip had to be the defense that Los Angeles Sparks and Team USA guard Kelsey Plum was playing on Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark at one point in the contest.

Despite the game being an exhibition (albeit a highly competitive one), Plum was playing full-court press defense against the then-22-year-old, which seemed to simultaneously amuse and frustrate Clark.

The Sporting News X account posted a clip of this interaction with the caption, "Caitlin Clark is fired up after battling through Kelsey Plum's aggressive defense 🔥". The post has over 5.8 million views.

Various angles of this moment have resurfaced several times since this happened, and always seem to go viral. This occurred once again on the evening of March 25, on the heels of a strange social media controversy.

Bear with us here. Essentially, social media "Muse" accounts (fan accounts dedicated to one player) had a "Muse Madness" where each account went against each other, and whichever got the most votes advanced to the next round.

The final round was between Caitlin Clark Muse and Steph Curry Muse. The Clark muse won, despite a staggering amount of votes coming in very late for the Curry Muse account. Because of these late votes, many believe the Curry Muse account was using bots to drive up their votes (although the Curry Muse account vehemently denies this).

This was the context with which X user @nosyone4 reposted a video of Plum pressing Clark from, with the caption, "WHY YOU PRESSING WHY YOU BOTTING".

This post has nearly 740,000 views and also caught the attention of Plum (who surely knew nothing of the Muse bot controversy), who set the record straight regarding her tight defense in a reply.

"Dawg could have been CC, could have been my grandma. coaches made me pick up full court and deny the ball back, I tried 😂 (btw if you watched the Olympics/ world championships, when you play team USA, this is the style) k leave me alone bye 😂," Plum wrote in an X post.

So there you have it. Regardless of whether you believe Plum (or whether you believe Curry Muse that they didn't use bots for votes), Clark fans seem to come out on top regardless.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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