Over the following week, SB Nation will be introducing each of the 12 members of the US Olympic Women’s Basketball team.
Before Caitlin Clark, there was Kelsey Plum: US Olympic Basketball Files
Kelsey Plum — a centerpiece of Team USA — was one of the most dominant scorers in college basketball history.
Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis 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.
Here’s what you need to know about Kelsey Plum, who was the all-time college basketball scoring leader before Caitlin Clark took the honor.
Fast Facts
Team: Las Vegas Aces (16-8)
2024 Regular Season Stats: 18.8 points (41.9% FG, 37.4% 3PT), 4.7 assists, 3.2 rebounds
Position: Guard
Draft Class: 2017, Pick #1
All-Star Selections: 3 (2022, 2023, 2024)
Previous Olympic Appearances: 2020 Olympic gold medalist (3x3)
College: University of Washington
Before Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Plum was the all-time scorer in NCAA Division I women’s basketball
As a senior at the University of Washington, Plum broke the all-time women’s basketball scoring record with a 57-point senior night that catapulted her to 3,397 points.
That night come on the heels of an incredible collegiate basketball season capped by a a nearly unprecedented senior season. Plum averaged 31.7 points on 52.9% shooting, including 42.8% from three.
“I probably played one of the best individual years of basketball of all time,” Plum told Just Women’s Sports.
She took a while to adjust to the WNBA — averaging single-digit points in her first three seasons — but her collegiate greatness remains rivaled by only a few.
Plum has been open, however, about how she struggled with mental health during her senior season, and throughout the earlier portion of her professional career. So, she was happy when Caitlin Clark broke the all-time scoring record.
“I’m actually very grateful to pass that baton,” Plum said on February 2, per NBC Sports. “I’m very happy for her... I remember, to be honest, [the record] was very much a low point in my life. It felt like a lot of pressure, and my identity was kind of caught up in that record.”
Plum is a two-time WNBA champion
Like the rest of the Aces core, Kelsey Plum was a key member of the 2022 and 2023 Championship teams; she averaged 17.1 points in the postseason run that resulted in the franchise’s first-ever title in ‘22, and 18.3 points per game last spring as the Aces went back-to-back.
This year, the Aces will look to become the first WNBA team since the Houston Comets to three-peat.
“We’re just going to keep coming back,” Plum said at the 2024 championship parade. “And everyone hates it.”
In 2022, Kelsey Plum won the All-Star Game MVP with a 30-point outing
Kelsey Plum went off in her first All-Star game, scoring 30 points on 12-18 shooting, including 5-11 from three-point range. At the time, it was tied for the most points ever scored in a WNBA All-Star game — that record has since been broken twice, with Arike Ogunbowale most recently scoring 34 points.
The picture of Plum raising her MVP trophy has since become a symbol of sorts — the laughingly small trophy paled in comparison to the NBA’s and highlighted a disparity in treatment between male and female basketball players.
But, as the WNBA has grown, so has the trophy. Ogunbowale, who earned MVP honors last weekend, hoisted a much more impressive trophy to celebrate her achievement.
Plum tore her achilles in 2020 – and came back a significantly better basketball player
Ahead of her fourth WNBA season, Kelsey Plum ruptured her achilles and missed the entire year recovering. She’s since described the injury as a blessing in disguise, noting how she was struggling with her mental health prior to the injury and that the time away from the game did her good.
“By the grace of God, I tore my Achilles,” she told We Need to Talk in 2023. “My life, I don’t like how it is. Let’s change it. And so it was just a complete spiritual, physical, and emotional revamp. Changed my perspective, changed how I live on a day-to-day. Still to this day, I think it was the best thing for my career.”
Plum averaged 8.8 points per game in the three seasons prior to the injury. Since the injury, her scoring output has nearly doubled, and she averaged 17.1 points per night in the three seasons since.
Plum’s breakout season came in 2021 he averaged 14.8 points and 3.7 assists off the bench, ultimately winning Sixth Player of the Year and finishing second in Most Improved Player voting.
She followed that up with two All-Star seasons; in 2022, she averaged 20.2 points on 42 percent shooting from 3, and in 2023, she maintained that offensive production, averaging 18.7 points per game.
Perhaps most notably, both of those seasons culminated in her ultimate goal: a WNBA championship.
