The rivalry is brewing.
Kelsey Plum, the newly minted two-time champion with the Las Vegas Aces, made comments about the Liberty not being “a team” and that “they don’t care about each other” right after winning Game 4 of the WNBA Finals Wednesday at Barclays Center.
The comments were heard loud and clear by Liberty players and staff. And star Jonquel Jones offered the strongest response during Friday’s end-of-season exit meeting at Barclays Center.
“She’s not in our locker room. She doesn’t know what goes on in our locker rooms and in our huddles. I think it’s easy to kick people when they’re down and you’re up,” Jones said Friday.
“Honestly and truly to me, it felt kind of classless,” Jones added. “You already won the championship, you get to celebrate with your teammates, you get to talk about the things that your team did to be successful and when you choose to essentially just s–t on somebody else … I don’t care anything more to be honest.”
Sabrina Ionescu added: “That couldn’t be further from the truth. I believe that I’ve never been on a team that’s been more committed to one another than what it’s been like this year.”
The responses from the Liberty come less than 48 hours after Plum celebrated her team’s second consecutive WNBA title and was trying to explain the Aces’ toughness throughout the season.
“I think we knew we hadn’t played our best basketball,” Plum told Yahoo Sports’ Cassandra Negley after the 70-69 title-clinching win. “We also knew that, as much as they’re a team, they’re not a team, if that makes sense. They’re really good individual players, but they don’t care about each other. And you can tell in those moments. They revert back to individual basketball.
“So we knew we had to just keep chipping away, keep getting stops, keep getting rebounds, space the floor and people made good plays. But we were a team. And that’s been all year.”
After the comments from the Liberty’s exit meetings quickly made the rounds on social media, Plum responded by adding context.
“Since the media wants to do click bait, imma cut this drama out right now so we can move on and be in peace,” Plum wrote on X. “What I said was taken extremely out of context. I was trying to articulate my teammates and I have been through a lot and we used our bond to get over the hump.”
She also apologized for initially making Wednesday’s statement.
“I see how if came off, never was my intention and I apologize. Our game grew immensely from this series, don’t let this bull s–t detract from the biggest win here.”
And getting through it doesn’t happen over night. Never been the type to throw shade, quite the opposite actually. I see how it came off, never was my intention and I apologize. Our game grew immensely from this series, don’t let this bull shit detract from the biggest win here. https://t.co/pWENnKC68l
— Kelsey Plum (@Kelseyplum10) October 20, 2023
Finals MVP A’ja Wilson recapped for those who weren’t aware: “Welcome! let me catch you up … KP made ppl mad (per usual).”
Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb spoke first during Friday’s exit meetings and the mild-mannered GM took the high road.
“I saw that,” Kolb said about Plum’s statements. “Actually a lot of our players saw that. First off, I want to respect Kelsey Plum. I think she’s done just a phenomenal job. … I do believe her words were taken a bit out of context, to be fair to her. And I think what she was trying to say is they, Las Vegas, have gone through it. They’ve been on teams that have lost or maybe their locker wasn’t the best and they’ve stuck together and they’ve persevered.
