In Sunday afternoon’s New York Liberty win over the Las Vegas Aces, Aces star Kelsey Plum exchanged some words with film director and producer Spike Lee. Lee, a New York Knicks superfan, can be typically found on the sidelines of Madison Square Garden heckling opposing NBA players — but this time, he took center stage at Barclay’s Center.
Spike Lee, Kelsey Plum exchange words at Liberty-Aces game: “I told him he should talk louder”
The New York Knicks superfan badgered Aces’ star Kelsey Plum throughout Sunday afternoon’s Liberty win — but she made clear postgame it was all in good fun.
Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images
Noa Dalzell is a senior writer covering the WNBA and all of women’s basketball for Breakaway, SB Nation’s women’s sports vertical, as well as the Celtics for CelticsBlog.
While he hasn’t been a longtime staple at WNBA games, Spike Lee certainly made his presence known on Sunday afternoon, badgering Plum all afternoon. Despite the 87-77 Aces loss, the three-time All-Star had a great offensive outing — she led the Aces with 24 points on 9-17 shooting, 12 of which came in the third quarter outburst.
Plum took the back-and-forth in stride, joking about it postgame.
“I can’t say exactly what was said, but I told him told that he should talk louder,” Plum said with a smile.
“But, it was all well and fun, and it’s really cool that he’s here. Even last round, it was really cool that he was here. I know he’s a big sports fan, so it says a lot that he’s in the building and that he respects the game. So, I was just having fun.”
Sabrina Ionescu said postgame that Spike Lee’s support for the Liberty has been much appreciated.
“He might have been the first person that called me when I got drafted here,” Ionescu revealed. “That’s a story that I don’t know if I’ve ever said, but he was the first person that called me when, and he just shared his excitement with New York getting the No. 1 pick. Every time I’ve seen him along the way, we’ve just had small talk, and I kept telling him he’s got to come to a game, because this is kind of like no other.”
After her 36-point outing in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs, Ionescu credited a Spike Lee high-five for the win:
“I felt like New York was just injected into my veins at that moment.”
The Liberty have the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, and therefore they’ll have home court the rest of the way as they pursue a franchise-first NBA title. Lee will likely be courtside again when the Liberty host the Aces for Game 2 on Tuesday.
“To be able to see him here, cheering on us, cheering us loud — he was over there chirping at the refs, talking to the players, which was really fun,” Ionescu said. “But, obviously it’s exciting to see the support that we’re getting from New York fans. We’re trying to bring a championship this year, and it takes a village.”
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