Back in February, the Los Angeles Sparks were happy to acquire guard Kelsey Plum from the Las Vegas Aces in a massive trade.
She was named to the All-Star team in each of the last three seasons while helping the Aces win the WNBA championship in 2022 and 2023. Many are hoping that she will shorten the timeline of the Sparks' rebuilding project and help them reach the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
Last summer, Plum played for Team USA women's basketball and won a gold medal in the Summer Olympics when the squad got past France in the final game. On Sunday, the Sparks honored her for that accomplishment.
Last year, Plum averaged 17.8 points and 4.2 assists a game for Las Vegas. In her first game of the new season, she went for 37 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point range while adding six assists and five steals as L.A. defeated the Golden State Valkyries by 17 points.
L.A. went a dismal 8-32 last season, its worst record in franchise history, causing the memories of their three WNBA championships to start fading a bit.
Plum is originally from Poway, Calif., which is just minutes away from San Diego and attended high school in the affluent San Diego neighborhood of La Jolla, so joining the Sparks has been something of a homecoming for her.
She played college basketball at Washington, where she led Division I with an average of 31.7 points a game.
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