Was Kelsey Plum really ripping Caitlin Clark over All-Star moment? 3 theories

USA Today

6 days ago

It's one of the more perplexing stories from WNBA All-Star weekend that left us all scratching our heads.
After players all wore "Pay Us What You Owe Us" shirts in warmups on Saturday -- a shot at the league as collective bargaining agreement negotiations ramp up -- player's association VP Kelsey Plum talked about the shirts and how that effort came together that Saturday morning. It was in that recounting that she said this: "Not to tattletale, but zero members of Team [Caitlin] Clark were very present for that."
Huh. What... what does that mean? Is that a shot at Caitlin Clark? At the players on the Fever star's All-Star team?
We have no context yet. But let's break down some theories we have about this whole thing:
Theory 1: Kelsey Plum was joking
If this is a joke, it's kind of not funny, right?
But it seems like the two have (jokingly, we think) thrown shade at each other in various ways. Check out this joke Clark made on Plum's Instagram:
And this Clark trolling ended with a hug with Plum:
And remember when Plum wanted Clark to be given a technical foul?
So it could be a very badly delivered joke.
Theory 2: Kelsey Plum needs to remind the players that they need a united front
Maybe this wasn't meant for Caitlin Clark specifically. Maybe it was for the entire player's association, to give them a heads up that in order to get paid what they owe, they can't miss meetings to come up with messages.
Theory 3: Caitlin Clark's team really didn't attend the meeting about All-Star t-shirts and Kelsey Plum had to call it out
Which brings up more questions: if this really did happen, why did Team Clark miss the meeting? What was the communication breakdown? Did Clark et al not want to be a part of it? But they put on the t-shirts anyway?
This is where we absolutely need Plum to clarify her comments. Hopefully she will and all this will be put behind the players as they fight for what they deserve in the next CBA.