Kelsey Christine Plum (born August 24, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for the Phantom of Unrivaled. Nicknamed "Plum Dawg", she is a five-time WNBA All-Star and was named the WNBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2022. Plum won gold medals with the United States in 3x3 basketball in 2020 and in 5x5 basketball in 2024. She is also the founder of the Dawg Class basketball camp.
Born in Poway, California, Plum attended La Jolla Country Day School, where she was named a McDonald's All-American. She played college basketball at Washington, where she left as the NCAA Division I women's all-time leading scorer. In her senior season, Plum was named national player of the year and set the Division I single-season scoring record. She was selected first overall in the 2017 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Stars, who relocated in 2018 to became the Las Vegas Aces. With the Aces, she won back-to-back WNBA championships in 2022 and 2023 and earned her first All-WNBA First Team selection in 2022.
Early life Plum is the daughter of Katie and Jim Plum. Her mother was an accomplished volleyball player for the University of California, Davis. Her father earned All-American football honors and set the CIF San Diego Section career passing yardage mark at Helix High School in La Mesa, California, and went on to play football and baseball collegiately at San Diego State. Plum has two older sisters and a younger brother. Her sisters both followed in their mother's footsteps and played volleyball. Her oldest sister Kaitlyn played for UC Davis, while Lauren played for the University of Oregon and for USA Volleyball's Junior National Team. Her younger brother Daniel played football at UC Davis.
Plum is dyslexic and felt like an outsider during her school years, repeating the fourth grade and enduring bullying. She has also experienced anxiety and depression, even as the WNBA’s No. 1 draft pick. Plum says she shares her situation to help others going through challenges understand that they are not alone and the importance of advocating for themselves. “You just don’t want to feel alone,” Plum says. “At the end of the day, we’re human beings. We want connection.”
Plum played volleyball at first, excelling in the USA Volleyball junior system, but when it came time for high school, she chose La Jolla Country Day School over Poway High School, where her sisters had attended, choosing basketball over volleyball. La Jolla Country Day School is where Candice Wiggins played during her high school years as well.
High school During the course of her high school career, Plum scored a total of 2,247 points, averaging 19.9 points per game. She recorded 677 rebounds, assisted on 381 baskets, and had 370 steals. Over her four years, her team had a record of 103–22, which led to four section titles and the 2012 CIF Division IV state championship (32-1). Plum also played AAU basketball for San Diego Sol.
Plum was selected to the 2013 WBCA High School Coaches' All-America Team. She participated in the 2013 WBCA High School All-America Game, hitting six of her eight field goal attempts, scoring 14 points.
When it came time for college choices, Plum considered Maryland and Virginia on the east coast, and Cal, Gonzaga, Oregon and Washington on the west coast, then decided to accept the offer from Washington.
Plum was named a McDonald's All-American. This qualified her to participate in the 2013 McDonald's All-American Girls Game. She was named Ms. Basketball by CalHiSports, an honor bestowed upon the best female high school basketball player in California. Prior winners include Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Courtney Paris, Candice Wiggins, and Diana Taurasi.
College career Freshman year After Plum helped the USA basketball team to win the gold medal in Lithuania, she flew directly to Seattle rather than heading home to San Diego. A teammate at the University of Washington picked her up at the airport and they were in the gym by the end of the day. By going directly to campus, Plum was able to sign up for summer school classes and get acquainted with the university and her teammates before the fall quarter began. Her head coach Mike Neighbors noticed her desire to get started, which helped him with his decision to name her the team captain before the season started, a rare event for a freshman. During her freshman year, she set six Washington freshman records. Her total points scored (695) were the most ever by a freshman, and her single game high of 38 points is a freshman record. She earned freshman of the year honors for the Pac-12 conference. She averaged almost 21 points per game during the regular season.
One of the highlights of the year was a victory over the fourth ranked team in the country, Stanford. Plum was the high scorer with 23 points.
Sophomore year Washington opened their regular-season with a game against Oklahoma. Washington lost the game 90–80 but Plum set a new school record with 45 points. In her sophomore year, she was named to the "Wade Watch" a list of 25 players who are viewed as having the potential to win player of the year honors. She was also named to the list of 30 players to be considered for the Wooden Award. Plum helped the Washington Huskies earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. In a coincidence, they faced Miami, coached by Katie Meier, who had been Plum's coach while on the USA Basketball U19 team. Plum scored 17 points in the game, but Miami prevailed 86–80.
Junior year For the week of January 11–17, Plum was named both the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Week and the Pac-12 Player of the Week. By scoring 25.9 points per game, she ranked first in the Pac-12 and fourth in the nation. Plum also led the Huskies on an improbable NCAA Tournament run, highlighted by their first Final Four appearance in program history. Unfortunately, the magical run ultimately ended in the Final Four as Plum and the Huskies lost to a deeper, more talented Syracuse Orange team (who also clinched their first Final Four berth in program history), 80–59. The Orange would go on to lose to the undefeated 37–0 and three-time defending women's national champions Connecticut Huskies, 82–51.
Senior year During Plum's senior season, she became the all-time leading scorer for either gender in Pac-12 history, passing the former record of Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike in a December 11, 2016, win over Boise State. The following month, during a win over Arizona, Plum became the first Pac-12 player, and the 12th NCAA Division I women's player, to reach 3,000 career points. On February 25, 2017, in the Huskies' final regular season game, Plum scored a Pac-12 record 57 points in an 84–77 win over Utah. The record-setting output also gave Plum the NCAA Division I women's basketball career scoring record. She entered the game trailing Jackie Stiles' previous record of 3,393 points by 53 points and broke the record in the fourth quarter. Plum led her Washington Huskies to a 29–6 record during her senior season, which boasted a record of 15–3 in the Pac-12. Plum, along with her third seeded Washington Huskies, made it to the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament where they were knocked out by two seed Mississippi State.
According to ESPN.com, Plum was unanimously selected as an Associated Press All-American First Teamer, an honor only given to five players in women's college basketball. Plum averaged 31.7 points while shooting 53 percent from the floor and 43 percent from three-point range during her senior campaign. Plum ended her senior season with a total of 1,109 points scored, an NCAA women's basketball single season record. According to Excelle Sports, Plum broke the NCAA career free throw record, tallying 912 points from the free throw line throughout her illustrious career. Plum has also been named one of the five finalists for the Wooden Award, an award handed out to the best player in women's college basketball, in the eyes of 250 sportscasters and writers. Plum was also named the AP player of the year for women's college basketball, the first ever Washington Husky to earn the award. Other accolades Plum accumulated during her senior year include being a part of the all-Pac-12 team as well as winning the Pac-12 player of the year award, only the second husky ever to win the award, according to The Seattle Times' website. Plum also earned the Nancy Lieberman award, an honor given to the top point guard in women's college basketball, as well as the Dawn Staley award, handed out to the best guard in women's college basketball. Plum ended her outstanding career with a point total of 3,527 and an assist total of 519. She finished just 270 points shy of Pete Maravich's all-time scoring record regardless of gender. Plum graduated from Washington in June 2017 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology and a 3.3 GPA.
On January 18, 2025, Plum's #10 jersey was retired during the half-time of Washington's game against Purdue.
Professional career WNBA San Antonio Stars / Las Vegas Aces (2017–2024)
Plum was selected as the first pick of the 2017 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Stars. This marked the first time in history that the first overall pick from the NBA (Markelle Fultz) and the WNBA came from the same school (University of Washington) in the same year. Plum made her career debut on May 25, 2017, against the Dallas Wings, she scored four points along with one assist off the bench in a 94–82 loss. On August 5, 2017, Plum scored a career-high 23 points in an 87–80 overtime win against the Seattle Storm.Kelsey Plum scores 23 points as San Antonio Stars beat Storm in OT By the end of the season, Plum averaged 8.5 ppg and was voted on the All-Rookie Team, but the Stars finished with the second worst record in the league.
In 2018, the San Antonio Stars relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, and were renamed the Las Vegas Aces. In the 2018 season, Plum improved in every statistical category, averaging more points, rebounds and assists with higher shooting percentages. This helped the Aces improve overall from the previous season but they fell short of a playoff spot as they finished ninth place with a 14–20 record (6 wins better than the 2017 season).
In 2019, the Aces would finish the season as the number four seed with a 21–13 record, making the playoffs for the first time since 2014. They would receive a bye to the second round. In the playoffs, Plum would step up on the offensive end, averaging double-digits in ppg for the entire Aces playoff run. In the second round elimination game, the Aces defeated the Chicago Sky 93-92 off a desperation half-court game winner by teammate Dearica Hamby who came up with a steal on defence in the final 10 seconds of the game. In the semi-finals, the Aces would lose in four games to the Washington Mystics, who ended up winning the championship.
On May 15, 2020, Plum signed a two-year extension with the Aces worth $350K.Las Vegas Aces sign Kelsey Plum to contract extension In early June, 2020, she suffered an injury to her Achilles tendon. Due to the injury and the surgery to repair it, she missed the 2020 season. Without Plum, the Aces were 18–4 in the shortened 22-game season with the number 1 seed. They would advance all the way to the Finals but fell short by losing to the Seattle Storm in a three-game sweep.
In 2021, Plum came off the bench and had a career year averaging 14.8 points, 3.6 assists, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.0 steals on 38.6% from the three and 94.4% from the free throw line. Plum ended the month of September averaging 21.7 points, 3.2 assists, and 1.5 steals, and was named Western Conference Player of the Month. Plum was finally healthy and had a career revamp season coming off the bench winning the WNBA Sixth Player of the Year and finished second in the WNBA Most Improved Player voting.