How the Aces' Kelsey Plum weathered the difficult WNBA season

LAS VEGAS — Kelsey Plum wasn't herself. Vomiting projectiles during the Las Vegas Aces' opening game of the WNBA playoffs will have that effect.

But the guard also knew she had to rise above her subpar performance, and found the path ahead in strange surroundings the next day.

“I was sitting in a sushi bar,” Plum said at a subsequent press conference. “And just said, 'You know what, I'm going to throw Game 1 out the window.'”

A'ja Wilson, sitting next to Plum, stared at her Aces teammate, looking a little uneasy herself.

“After you threw up, you went out for sushi?” Wilson said.

“Hey,” Plum replied, “it worked.”

In fact, Plum and the Aces defeated the Seattle Storm in the first round. But the semifinals were a completely different story for the two-time defending WNBA champions. The New York Liberty lead 2-0 after winning the first two home games in the best-of-five series. But whether it was Plum going through a high-profile divorce and helping the Aces overcome their most regular-season losses in five years, or Las Vegas chasing a three-peat amid injuries and off-the-field controversy, the season was determined by turning off the noise.

Now the Aces must win three straight against the Liberty, starting with Game 3 on Friday in Las Vegas (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). No WNBA team has ever managed to win a series while down 2-0. And Las Vegas has lost five straight times to New York this year, including three regular-season meetings.

Plum and the Aces hope they can recapture their magic in Las Vegas. But no matter how this season ends, Plum said she's glad she fought through it.

“I’m proud to have been here this year,” Plum told ESPN. “The fact that I'm playing basketball now is a great achievement. Of course we really want another championship. But I also feel like I've already won. Everything else is a kind of house fee.”

Although Plum is a passionate and outgoing gamer, she would prefer her personal life to remain private. But that shouldn't be the case.

“I didn't expect a divorce to happen in public,” Plum said of the dissolution of her marriage to former NFL player Darren Waller. “It felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me. I think people might look at me and say, 'Oh, she's super tough.' But this one really broke me.

“I deleted social media from my phone. I have a new phone and no longer have many people's numbers. I turned off the TV and just started reading my Bible. I'm just saying this emotionally, I've been feeling this for a long time.

Plum thanks those closest to her, including her Aces teammates, for helping her.

“I’m just thankful that I have really great people around me to help me pick up the pieces,” Plum said. “But what I’m most proud of is that despite all the ups and downs, it didn’t take away my joy.”

She said that's the happiness she still feels from basketball. Even in a 27-13 season where not everything went as well for the Aces as the 34-6 2023 season, Plum is grateful for the routine and camaraderie.

“The most important thing is to make sure she understands that we are always here,” said Wilson, who like Plum was a No. 1 draft pick in the WNBA. “I have her back no matter what. It might be those dark days that we’ve all been through and that look different for each of us, but we get it.”

“I will be there every step of the way. Whether it’s getting on her nerves, leaving her alone for a bit or checking on her.”

Their seven seasons together, including on the US Olympic team, make their communication second nature.

“I feel like we definitely have our own language,” Wilson said. “We know how to get under each other’s skin but make each other better at the same time.”

Like the Aces, Plum had its ups and downs in these playoffs. She scored just 2 points on 1-of-8 shooting in Game 1 against Seattle. After the sushi and a mental reset, she had 29 points on 11 of 15 shooting and led the Aces to a Game 2 win that clinched the series.

In Game 1 against New York on Sunday, Plum had 24 points and shot 9 of 17. In Game 2, she was one of the targets of coach Becky Hammon's wrath during a timeout and finished the game with just 6 points after going 2 of 9 had.

The Aces have talked a lot about how this year has been more challenging than the last two seasons, both of which ended with championships. Las Vegas was without point guard Chelsea Gray for the first 12 games as she recovered from the foot injury that kept her out of the title-clinching Game 4 of the WNBA Finals last year.

When Gray returned, Las Vegas was 6-6 and the Aces looked more like themselves. But their offensive efficiency, defensive reliability and championship aura have not remained consistent.

Hammon attributes this in part to the rest of the league working hard to catch the Aces and how difficult it is to stay hungrier than teams like New York, which has never won the championship.

Now the Aces must find that hunger themselves. For Plum, that means digging deep into the reserves she has built up over the years.

As successful as her college career was at Washington — she led the program to its first Final Four in 2016 and set the NCAA career record in 2017 — she remembers having to do a lot of soul-searching to figure out who she was as a student was a person and a player at the same time.

When Plum thinks back to her WNBA rookie season as the No. 1 pick in 2017 — for a franchise that finished its career in San Antonio before heading to Las Vegas the next year — she shakes her head. She didn't know where she fit into a team that didn't know where it was going.

“It just felt like quicksand,” Plum said.

During Plum's first three seasons in the WNBA, she averaged 8.5, 9.5 and 8.6 points. In 2020, she tore her Achilles tendon and missed the season, which she calls a blessing because she regained strength during rehab. In 2021, Plum had to come off the bench throughout the season and earned her sixth Player of the Year award – an award she never wanted. She was determined to start over.

While Plum was coaching in late 2021, he received a call from new Aces coach Hammon, who had replaced Bill Laimbeer. Plum had a sometimes difficult relationship with Laimbeer: she appreciated the things he taught her, but not always his tone.

Hammon told Plum her first impression of the team was that Plum's move off the bench worked. Plum ended that call too angry to even finish her training.

“I remember hanging up,” Plum said, “and thinking, 'I'm going to come to training camp like a man possessed.'”

Hammon laughs as he remembers this, because that's exactly what Plum did. She started and averaged 20.2, 18.7 and 17.8 points over the past three seasons as an All-Star. She won Olympic gold in 3×3 in 2021 and in 5-on-5 this year.

“I don’t think she felt valued before,” Hammon said. “I tried to put a lot of faith in her and let her grow. Not just as a basketball player, but also off the court. She has experienced so much growth through some really difficult things. She's just really developed into this beautiful person.”

Iowa's Caitlin Clark surpassed Plum's NCAA record in February to widespread acclaim. At the time, Plum seemed to have all but lost her place in history. But she then explained that she didn't remember it as a joyful time. It was too much about hitting numbers and not about why she was playing.

Plum said he always wants to hold on to that. The Aces now have their backs against the wall. But whatever happens, Plum knows she has persevered through the many challenges.

“You go through things in life and you build that level of resilience,” she said. “Sometimes you ask yourself, 'Why is this happening?' But then you realize that if you hadn't gone through things before, you wouldn't be able to make it now.