The WNBA All-Stars made waves on Saturday night by donning shirts that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us” as the players continue ongoing negotiations with the league over a new collective bargaining agreement.
Those talks began to heat up during All-Star Weekend, with the league and players sitting down for their first formal meeting. The players described the meeting as a “missed opportunity,” though remained optimistic about working towards an agreement that satisfies both parties. However, in a showing of solidarity during Saturday’s All-Star Game, players wore the “Pay Us What You Owe Us” shirts as a means of drawing attention to their cause.
That decision was made rather hastily, it seems, based on Los Angeles Sparks’ star Kelsey Plum’s comments following the All-Star Game. And not only was the decision to wear the shirts made rather quickly, but the decision did not involve Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, the league’s biggest draw.
“It was a very powerful moment,” Plum said of the shirts. “We didn’t, at least as players, we didn’t know that was going to happen. I think it was kind of, like, a genuine surprise. But the t-shirt, just, united front, was determined this morning, that we had a meeting for. And, you know, not to tattletale, but zero members of Team Clark were very present for that.”
“That really needed to be mentioned,” Sabrina Ionescu said laughing as she rolled her eyes.
“I’m trying to make the situation light, okay?” Plum responded. “I think it was all of us just getting on the same page before the game, and we wanted to do something that was just uniting and collective and I thought that it was a very powerful moment and got the point across. And sometimes, you don’t have to say anything.”
The shirts have certainly garnered a lot of attention, so it was a very effective move by the WNBA players. However, it doesn’t seem that the decision was entirely “uniting and collective” if the Caitlin Clark-led All-Star team wasn’t involved in the planning.
It’s unclear exactly why Kelsey Plum believed it was necessary to publicly call out Clark in this instance, especially considering she and her team wore the shirts. Ionescu sure thought that the comment was out of left field.
Whatever the case may be, it made for a bizarre moment during Plum’s press conference on Saturday.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.