The All-American Rejects house party tour looks like the most fun show you could imagine
AAR is a band that formed in 1999 and some of their biggest singles (e.g. "Dirty Little Secret" and "Move Along" and "It Ends Tonight") released in 2005. They provided songs for soundtracks from the early aughts in movies like She's The Man or TV shows like One Tree Hill and Smallville.
Their cultural footprint is one rooted in nostalgia (like when they headlined the When We Were Young festival in 2022) not just for their own music but for a sound and feeling of decades past. That's why their recent shows are especially cool: It's making fans feel young again.
USA TODAY: All-American Rejects singer answers burning questions about those viral pop-up shows
The All-American Rejects are ditching arenas for backyards. They're doing a 'House Party' tour, sign up on their IG and they might show up to throw a show in your city. 2005 is back pic.twitter.com/0G2bOE1u2o
— Dudes Posting Their W's (@DudespostingWs) May 21, 2025
whats crazy about all american rejects doing house shows is that its a completely inhospitable environment for people over the age of 26. no millenial boomers allowed in to make it cringe. this is how theyve managed to capture the hearts of the zoomers. pic.twitter.com/W3Cxng3MPe
— doomer (@uncledoomer) May 21, 2025
It just gets better and better. They're doing this exactly right pic.twitter.com/cnlMbLmR76
— Gaby Goldberg (@gaby_goldberg) May 20, 2025
The All American Rejects crashed the bowling alley my work shares a parking lot with for an unplanned popup show tonight!! hundreds of miles in the opposite direction of their next tour stop. this absolutely was not on my 2025 bingo card lmao pic.twitter.com/73hnbmSM1W
— Mango 🔜 AC (@JBurg115) May 17, 2025
The All American Rejects are performing at house parties for their tour. Now THIS is how you make a come back😭 pic.twitter.com/XgBleBWBzR
— vids that go hard (@vidsthatgohard) May 23, 2025
The All American Rejects playing in a backyard somewhere in Chicago pic.twitter.com/dqC6cL72QA
— Vince Gudauskas (@in2thewayside) May 16, 2025
the all american rejects playing free house shows across the US is possibly the coolest thing a rock band has done in decades
— SALEM VEX (@salemvex) May 20, 2025
All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter said that they're the "best shows" they've ever played in their lives. Here is more (via Rolling Stone):
"It feels great to flip the bird to the giant titanic music industry. I only hope young bands can see this as an inspiring way to disrupt this market. People are tired of being force-fed everything. Music is seen before it's heard. We're in the age of celebrity-defining success. If you're a popular artist, you could literally fart on a microphone and have a hit song. That's a shame."
Inspired by their early years of playing student-promoted backyards and basements, they wanted to connect back to their roots and DIY origins back when they were sleeping in their van. They have played in front of 5,000 people in Iowa and as intimate as 400 people in suburban Chicago.
Ritter added that while his band has an upcoming tour with The Jonas Brothers and will soon play MetLife Stadium, he already knows that it won't "hold a candle" to the house show in Nashville.
The band is reportedly using footage from these shows to make a music video for an upcoming single. You can RSVP for one of their house parties by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The All-American Rejects house party tour looks like the most fun show you could imagine
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Elle
16 hours ago
- Elle
Inside Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade's 15-Year Love Story—and Its Surprising Beginning
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. THE RUNDOWN Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade have been together for over 15 years. They met two years before they started dating, in 2007, but Union had just gone through a divorce from NFL star Chris Howard, while Wade was married to Siohvaughn Funches, with whom he shares his children, Zaya and Zaire. Wade also has a son, Xavier, from another relationship, and the couple welcomed their daughter Kaavia in 2018. They also serve as guardians to Wade's nephew Dahveon Morris. With a big blended family to manage, Union and Wade speak frequently about their responsibilities to one another and their kids, even writing a children's book together. The actress told People in 2023 that they've both grown a lot from their previous relationships. 'This is both of our second marriages, and we're super transparent about that,' Union said. 'We didn't do it right the first time around. There's another way—to be more collaborative and equitable. We humble ourselves, listen, and we meet in the middle.' Here's everything to know about their relationship so far. Union told Essence, via E!, that they met when they were both asked to co-host a Super Bowl party in 2007, but they did not hit it off right away. 'I stayed on one side of the room with my people,' Union recalled. 'We like to party, and he doesn't drink at all. He was on the other side of the room holding bible study.' In 2014, she told Glamour, 'When I met Dwyane, his résumé looked like crap: athlete, going through a divorce, nine years younger than me. None of that screamed, 'Let's have a lasting relationship.'' But after a 'heart-crushing breakup' with someone else she'd been dating, Union agreed to go on a date with him. Her perspective quickly changed. Their first public event was on July 17, 2010, at the Summer Groove Benefit Dinner in Hollywood, Florida. On July 19, Union was seen snuggling up to Wade at his All-Star basketball game in Miami. They were both featured on the cover of Essence's February 2012 issue and were asked about engagement plans. 'We're not rushing it,' Wade shared. 'Both of us have been married before, and we understand that if we choose to marry again, we want it to be right. We both took failing at marriage hard. The next time it's gotta be forever.' They took a break in early 2013 before ultimately reconciling. A year later, Union explained the situation to Glamour, saying, 'When Dwyane and I broke up briefly in 2013, it was because of distance and scheduling. I finished filming [Being Mary Jane], then I flew to Vegas right away to start shooting Think Like a Man Too. I couldn't take time off, and I missed some quality togetherness we desperately needed.' She added, 'Over the summer, I reassessed priorities. I'd always wanted an awesome career with back-to-back projects, but I realized I wasn't willing to sacrifice my relationship for it. Moving forward, I decided my work schedule has to make sense for our family.' When they were apart, Wade fathered a child with Aja Metoyerin. Wade announced that they had gotten engaged with a post on Dec. 21, 2013, on Instagram. He shared a picture of the massive diamond on Union's hand, writing in the caption, 'She said YES!!! @gabunion.' During an interview with Good Morning America, Union talked about how his children helped him to propose. 'They were like, 'We wanna do a presentation for you.' They like to do skits and songs and stuff, so we turn around, and they're like, 'Okay, we're ready!' and I turned back around and all the boys were holding up signs that said, 'Will you marry us?'' she shared. Apparently, the kids had asked her this before because they wanted her as a step-mom, so she thought they were messing around at first. But then she spotted Wade on one knee. 'And I was like, 'Oh, this is serious! This is a thing! Yes! Of course, yes!'' she recalled. 'I decided that she wasn't just marrying me, she was marrying all of us,' Wade later told Oprah. 'So I had them down by the pool, and I had them make their own signs. I had each one say, 'Will you marry us?' I took her outside to look at the water, and at first, she's like, 'What is going on?' I get behind her, and I get on a yoga mat because I couldn't put my knees down. I'm sitting there waiting for her to turn around and she's reading the boys' signs, and the boys said, 'Will you marry us?'' On the Arsenio Hall Show, Union was open about how they had negotiated a prenup ahead of the ceremony. 'The biggest difference between this and the last marriage will be a prenup—at my insistence,' she said. 'When you have your own stuff, you don't need to worry about anyone else's stuff. So everyone should go into the relationship knowing, 'I'm here for you, and you're here for me.' And the reality is I've never seen Dwyane balance a checkbook, so I gotta protect my stuff. It's the wave of the future.' They were married on Aug. 30, 2014, in Miami. Union reportedly wore a Dennis Basso gown, and they were serenaded at the reception by John Legend. They shared images from their epic honeymoon on Instagram, which included visits to the Maldives, a safari in the Serengeti, and the Seychelles islands. Union has been quite open about their struggles with fertility as they worked to grow their family. In her book, We're Going to Need More Wine, Union wrote that she experienced a number of miscarriages due to adenomyosis, which affected the health of her uterus. They attempted IVF numerous times, to no avail. 'For three years, my body has been a prisoner of trying to get pregnant—I've either been about to go into an IVF cycle, in the middle of an IVF cycle, or coming out of an IVF cycle,' she wrote. Wade and Union ultimately welcomed their daughter Kaavia James on Nov. 7, 2018, via surrogate. They announced her arrival on Instagram, writing, 'A LOVELY DAY 👶🏾👶🏾👶🏾 We are sleepless and delirious but so excited to share that our miracle baby arrived last night via surrogate and 11/7 will forever be etched in our hearts as the most loveliest of all the lovely days.' Talking to Oprah Winfrey, Union said of becoming a mom, 'We want her to understand that she was so loved, wanted, desired, protected, and nurtured when she was just a thought. We want her to know everything it took to bring her into this world, usually around the time she starts talking back. We want her to really understand what we went through.' In 2020, Wade's daughter, Zaya, came out as transgender, and both her dad and step-mom have been very vocally supportive. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Wade explained, 'Zaya, our 12-year-old, came home and said, 'Hey, so I want to talk to you guys. I think going forward, I'm ready to live my truth. And I want to be referenced as she and her. I'd love for you guys to call me Zaya.'' He said more in an interview with People about the importance of supporting all his children for who they are. 'As I'm raising [Zaya], as I'm raising my kids, you just try to put them in the best situations to be able to succeed in life,' Wade shared. 'How I do that, and how me and my wife decide to do that, may be different than another family, but we want them to know there's always unconditional love, that it will always be support.' He added, 'We've got you, no matter what. And we see you. I see you how you see you.' Union also posted about Zaya's new name, introducing her on Twitter with a video and writing, 'Meet Zaya. She's compassionate, loving, whip-smart, and we are so proud of her. It's OK to listen to, love & respect your children exactly as they are. Love and light good people.' Union's children's book, Welcome to the Party, was released in May 2020. The book was inspired by the couple's surrogacy journey to welcoming Kaavia. 'I wanted to create a love letter to my daughter to let her know that even though her entry into our family was a bit non-traditional, we love her and wanted her,' Union said to People. 'And she is celebrated.' The couple was honored as part of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020, in part for their LGBTQ+ advocacy. Union has been very open about being a rape survivor and shared how PTSD from the assault has been a part of her life during the premiere episode of Facebook Watch's Peace of Mind with Taraji series with Taraji P. Henson. She discussed attending therapy during the pandemic and how the experience had influenced her relationship with Wade. 'I just feel a little bit more naked, exposed,' said Union. 'Because I am just on Zoom with the therapist and I can hear the household, and then the doors is not enough space, you know what I mean, and that kind of worries me sometimes. You know when people are like, 'You gotta keep the mystery about yourself. Don't tell him everything.' I'm like, 'Well, shit then, the pandemic, you got the whole thing.'' Wade told People how he thinks he and Union make their marriage work after almost seven years of marriage. 'It's about learning about each other, learning what she wants for her life and for her career and trying to support all those things,' he said. Union agreed, adding, 'This is both of our second marriages, and we're super transparent about that. We didn't do it right the first time around. There's another way—to be more collaborative and equitable. We humble ourselves, listen, and we meet in the middle.' Wade and Union collaborated on their first book together in 2021, Shady Baby, also inspired by Kaavia James. Union often jokes about the expressions Kaavia makes on social media. Writing for Time, Union talked about surrogacy again, admitting that she had always dreamed of experiencing pregnancy. 'I wanted the experience of being pregnant,' she wrote. 'To watch my body expand and shift to accommodate this miracle inside me.' But Wade convinced her that surrogacy was the right choice, telling her, 'As much as we want this baby, I want you. We've lost too much in our relationship for me to be okay with encouraging you to do one more thing to your body and your soul.' She also discussed Wade fathering a child when they were broken up years earlier. 'It should go without saying that we were not in a good place at the time that child was conceived,' Union shared. 'But we were doing much better when he finally told me about the pregnancy. To say I was devastated is to pick a word on a low shelf for convenience.' She added, 'There are people—strangers I will never meet—who have been upset that I have not previously talked about that trauma. I have not had words, and even after untold amounts of therapy, I am not sure I have them now.' They walked the red carpet at the Cheaper by the Dozen premiere. Their daughters Kaavia and Zaya joined them for the family film affair. The couple stunned at the 2022 Met Gala in Versace looks and sparkling Tiffany & Co. jewelry. The theme that year was 'In America: An Anthology of Fashion.' 'Because when you think about the Gilded Age and Black and brown people in this country, this country is built off of our backs, our blood, sweat and tears,' Union said of her ensemble. 'So we added these red crystals to represent the blood spilled during the accumulation of gross wealth by a few during the Gilded Age, off of the backs of Black people and people of color in this country." During their anniversary month, the couple took a trip to Spain. Union captioned a carousel of photos, 'It's begun. 🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🛥🛥🛥#WadeWorldTour2022.' Wade accompanied Union at the Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of her film The Inspection. That same month, they made a joint appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Discussing their 'pet peeves' in their relationship, Wade said his was Union's backseat driving. 'My wife stopped driving a few years ago. She got into a few fender-benders,' he explained. 'I was all for it, so I drive. When she gets in the passenger seat, she tells me how to drive, all the time.' Union had her own complaints. 'He snores,' she announced. 'But it's not just enough that he snores, he brings our dog, Trey, who's a little Frenchie, and they snore together. It's like a symphony of snoring.' Wade marked Union's 50th birthday with a wrist tattoo of the outline of a heart next to the letters 'GU.' In a Reel on Instagram, Union looks delighted by the surprise. 'The moment you find out your man has made you his 17th tattoo. @dframeddanewade made his best bday surprise for #SouthAfrica WadeWorldTour2022 edition #Capetown Part 4,' Union wrote in the caption. Union celebrated Wade's 41st birthday by throwing him a huge dinner attended by their closest friends and family, including celebrities Corey Gamble, Jemele Hill, Avery Wilson, Essence Atkins, and Queen Latifah. 'Any chance to celebrate you, know that I'll be the loudest one cheering!' the star wrote on a carousel of pics and videos on Instagram. They walked the red carpet at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Los Angeles. Wade wore a Prada suit, and Union was dressed in Ralph Lauren. Union made a revealing comment about her and Wade's finances during an interview on the Black Millionaires podcast, saying they split bills in the middle in their household. 'In this household, we split everything fifty-fifty,' she said, via People. 'But in the other households that each of us have to support, there's always this like, gorilla on your back, that's like, 'You better work, bitch, you better work. Oh, you're going to sleep in?' You know, somebody might not eat.' Union added she maintains a 'scarcity mindset' from before she found success, saying, 'I think I just have more responsibilities for my money. I get nervous like, 'Oh God, that movie didn't open. Am I going to have enough to hold everybody up?'' Fans were seemingly very interested in Union's revelation, and Wade eventually discussed their finances on the Club Shay Shay podcast. 'I said something about it being my house that I paid for,' he told host Shannon Sharpe. 'My wife looked at me and said, 'You will never say that to me again when it's something that we share.' So when we moved to [Los Angeles], my wife said, 'I got half on it you will never say my house again—you can say that in the arena!'' During Wade's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame acceptance speech, he called out Union. 'My wife, Gab, thank you for making our house a home,' he said. 'Thank you for making sure our kids feel seen, heard, and protected when I'm not around.' Wade continued, 'Thank you for being on this journey with me these past 15 years. Thank you for learning to love my imperfections, just as much as we enjoyed and love the moments of perfection. I love you.' Union celebrated Wade's birthday with a tribute on Instagram. 'You are a gift to me, your family and everyone you encounter,' the actress wrote. 'Your purpose is rooted in the divine. May the blessings on blessings rain down on you. Love you Bay.' Union and Wade celebrated 10 years of marriage together. The couple enjoyed a fun vacation in Martha's Vineyard.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Martin Shaw: ‘Lewis Collins behaved so badly'
Passing through the corridors backstage at the Harold Pinter Theatre on the way to meet Martin Shaw, line after line of A Man For All Seasons runs through my head like holy writ. The Robert Bolt play, turned into an Oscar-winning film in 1966, includes some of the most powerful but perfectly weighted dialogue of the 20th century. Shaw is making his second appearance in the play as Sir Thomas More – Henry VIII's martyred chief minister – for a summer West End run. 'I never got this play or Sir Thomas More out of my system,' he says. Shaw's career has oscillated between high theatre and high-profile TV roles such as Judge John Deed, Inspector George Gently and – most famously for those of a certain vintage – as Doyle in the much maligned cop show The Professionals. When we speak, he is an incredibly spritely 80 in his Hush Puppies, with long white hair falling either side of the face of a man 10 years his junior. That's just as well given the demands of playing More, a man with such integrity he would rather die than endanger his immortal soul by taking an oath confirming Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church. More's saintly virtues have been called into question recently, with Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy and the resulting BBC drama adaptation portraying him as a sadistic schemer of the Tudor court who enjoyed torturing heretics in opposition to his great rival Thomas Cromwell. In A Man For All Seasons, these roles are more or less reversed. 'I think Wolf Hall is one of the greatest dramas with the greatest performances ever produced by British television,' says Shaw. 'I've heard Hilary Mantel partly wrote Wolf Hall as a response to A Man For All Seasons. But from what I know, I think her portrayal of More is probably not accurate.' 'I told the casting director I couldn't work with Lewis' Whatever philosophical puzzles Shaw grapples with on stage, it's the legacy of a much less distinguished TV show he still finds tricky to escape. The Professionals, produced from 1977 to 1981, made Shaw a household name – all high cheekbones, footballer's perms and karate chops. It's remembered for the unbridled machismo of lead characters Bodie and Doyle – part police, part secret agents working for the fictional CI5 – who spent most of their time skidding a Ford Capri around the streets of London, shooting terrorists and making off-colour remarks about beautiful women. The trouble is, Shaw hated every single minute of it, in particular his toxic relationship with Lewis Collins, the actor who played Bodie to his Doyle. 'It was truly, truly horrible and there was a sense of blessed relief when it was over. Ten years after the show finished I met Lewis and everything was healed between us. But the trouble all started when I was a villain in The New Avengers in 1977 and he was my sidekick. Lewis behaved so badly on that set. He had a small part but he was so arrogant. It was beyond that. It was bizarre.' Shaw describes how Collins would boast about his physical prowess at the expense of the other actors and confuse the director by talking about how the scenes would play out if he had to fight for real. 'I looked at the script for The Professionals and was offered the part. I'd done a film with Anthony Andrews and we were good mates so we rehearsed together and I thought he was a shoo-in for the other lead. But the production company wanted an abrasive relationship. 'I'd already said to the casting director, 'I can't work with Lewis because we don't get on', but they cast him anyway. I went up to him on the first day of shooting and said: 'You know I didn't want you to do this but let's get on with it and have fun.' And he told me to f--- off and he never forgave me for the next four years.' There is a notorious episode of The Professionals called 'The Klansman' about a far-Right group Shaw's character has to infiltrate. It was never broadcast in the UK because it featured such a prevalence of racist language. Did Shaw think this seemed insane during filming? 'I thought pretty much every episode was insane,' he replies. The thing Shaw found most uncomfortable then as now is that his work up to that point – the Royal Court and the National Theatre, TV and movie roles – 'vanished' once he was in The Professionals. Shaw, born in Birmingham in 1945, attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda) from 1963, served his time in rep and London theatre, and came to prominence playing Banquo in Roman Polanski's film of Macbeth in 1971. Polanski – who owned a flat in Chelsea – asked him to test for the role of Macbeth, though the lead eventually went to Jon Finch. 'When I saw the people testing for Macbeth, including Antony Hopkins who was my hero and with whom I shared a house, I thought I had no chance. But Polanski called me and offered me the role of Banquo.' Shaw recounts the conversation in a Dracula-esque Polanski accent and says the seven months of Macbeth's production were some of the greatest of his life. He's understandably circumspect about Polanski's ongoing exile in France as a result of his flight from the US in 1971 following his conviction for sex with a minor. 'Polanski was great with actors. My admiration and respect for him carried on through the whole production. There is so much gossip about the case he was involved in but it's a terrible loss to the industry.' 'Rhodes did some very bad things but I didn't mind playing that character' In the four decades since The Professionals, Shaw invariably appeared on British TV as a detective or a judge, which he says is attributable more to television's obsession with the law than anything to do with his persona or slow, sonorous voice. One notable blip on this long list of hits was the eight-part BBC epic drama Rhodes in 1996, which told the story of Britain's most infamous 19th-century empire builder Cecil Rhodes in southern Africa. It seems almost inconceivable that this would be made today, given the bitter controversy over Rhodes's reputation. The show was rounded on by critics and the ratings almost halved between the first and second episode. 'Rhodes was hard enough to make even then,' says Shaw. 'The BBC didn't want to support it. I suspect they wanted to kill it. Eventually it was made for £8m instead of £12m. The South African government withdrew their funding, not because of any sensitivities over the theme of colonialism, but because they didn't like Rhodes being portrayed as a homosexual. 'It was clear even in 1996 that Rhodes did some very bad things. I didn't mind playing that kind of character. Those bad things are there in all of us and having a licence to access them as an actor is great.' 'It's almost impossible to be a person of integrity in public life' 'Bad things' are harder to find in Thomas More, but they must be in there somewhere. A Man For All Seasons is Shaw's happy place, having already taken the role in 2005 at London's Haymarket Theatre. Shaw says he went to see the play and the film over and over again in the 1960s, starring the peerless Paul Scofield. Shaw wants to keep evolving his approach to More, as much to make the most of the character's limitless depth as to step out of the great man's shadow. 'This time I'm playing him as a more life-enhancing, life-loving character who could laugh and get incredibly angry as well as his better known qualities.' This is a play that poses one dilemma after another. At its heart is the question of how far a person is prepared to go to preserve their own conscience, their own sense of truth as they believe it to be. Every other character compromises for gain or self-preservation (other than Henry VIII, who doesn't need to). More goes to the block for his beliefs. 'From my point of view, More's stand was borderline ridiculous,' says Shaw. 'For him, his oath was 'words you say to God' so he could not, as his daughter suggested, take the oath and think differently in his heart.' Among many memorable lines – the quickfire battles with Cromwell, More's stirring defence of the law – the exchange between More and former hanger-on Richard Rich stands out. Rich perjured himself to gain promotion to the Attorney General of Wales and his lies provide the only evidence against More. Knowing his trial is all but over, More asks to see the red dragon on Rich's new badge of office. 'Richard, it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world if he should lose his soul … but for Wales?' The script is all but perfect. Shaw recalls the line, 'When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties they lead their country by a short route to chaos.' 'That is true now more than ever,' he adds. 'Think about how important conscience and integrity are. It's almost impossible to be a person of integrity in public life – but I truly believe they are out there.' Shaw is full of contradictions. He has been a vegetarian since 1971 and follows Sant Mat, a mystical philosophy movement influenced by Sikhism and Hinduism. There's no reason why that shouldn't co-exist with sliding over the bonnet of an Escort RS2000 in pursuit of a gun runner, but it feels like it might. Still, despite all Shaw's misgivings, he has made something approaching peace with the worst experience of his career. 'There is another side to The Professionals. Years later an actor walked up to me on set and said 'It's so wonderful to meet you. You're my childhood hero.' So that helped me see the show differently. So many people loved it and got some sort of happiness from it.' It's wisdom of which Sir Thomas More would surely approve. A Man For All Seasons is at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London SW1, until Sept 6 Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
3 days ago
- New York Post
WNBA star Kelsey Plum admits to ‘bad joke' with Caitlin Clark zinger at All-Star Game
Kelsey Plum won't be quitting her day job to become a comedian. The WNBA star admitted recently that she messed up when she attempted to jokingly zing Caitlin Clark and her 'Team Clark' members for missing a meeting to discuss wearing the viral 'Pay us what you owe us' shirts at the All-Star Game in July. 'Oh, I made a bad joke. I made a really bad joke,' Plum said with a laugh on 'Bird's Eye View' podcast. 'Tough one.' Plum made headlines during this year's All-Star festivities when she made a seemingly random dig at Clark and others. This year's game featured Team Clark, headlined by Clark, versus Team Collier, led by Napheesa Collier and featuring Plum. WNBA All-Stars wore those inscribed shirts while they aim to improve their pay in the next collective bargaining agreement, and fans chanted 'pay them' after the game. 4 Kelsey Plum (l) and Sue Bird (r) on the 'Bird's Eye View' podcast. @SueBird/YouTube 'It was a very powerful moment. As players, we didn't know that that was going to happen. I think it was kind of like a genuine surprise,' Plum, who plays for the Sparks, said after the game. 'The T-shirt, just united front, was determined this morning that we had a meeting for. Not to tattletale, but zero members of Team Clark were very present for that.' Plum laughed while she said the 'very present' line, and Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu shook her head next to her and jokingly chided her. 4 Plum (l) and Clark )r) before the All-Star Game. Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images 'Not needed to be mentioned,' Ionescu said. Plum responded: 'I'm trying to make the situation light, OK.' A little more than a month later, Plum recognized she had misjudged the situation. 'I should have, hindsight 20/20, because of the shirts, because of the fans, like I should have known it was a way more serious moment than a typical All-Star Game,' Plum said. 4 Kelsey Plum at an All-Star Game press conference. Getty Images 'Because I went into that press conference very happy-go-lucky, we won. Had a great weekend, like my family's here, it was just a great time. Plum revealed that her joke attempted to make fun of Team Clark for allegedly being hungover that morning. 4 Caitlin Clark has been sidelined with an injury. Getty Images 'The questions came in, and it was like, 'CBA, this, this, this, this.' I honestly Birdie, was like, 'Hey, Team Clark, they didn't make it to the meeting either,' making a joke, trying to make the room lighter,' Plum said. 'I was making a joke that they were hungover, even though our team nickname was 'Hungover.' So it was like, 'At least we made it (to the meeting).' Obviously, we're all on the same page, we all wore the shirts, we're all unified. And I think, if anything, I was just more discouraged because I felt like it took away from the moment of what we were trying to do.' The discourse about her comments did not paint Plum in a favorable light, but she acknowledged it would have been tough for her to respond. 'You don't even get to respond, and if you do you seem defensive. That's why I didn't even say anything,' Plum said. 'So, you just have to let it go. Thick skin' Plum, 30, is averaging 20.3 points and 6.1 assists per game for the Sparks, who are in ninth place in the league with a 16-17 record.
