Becky Hammon Refutes Viral Kelsey Plum Yelling Incident
Down 2-1 in their WNBA Semifinals series against the New York Liberty, the Las Vegas Aces are looking to force a winner-take-all Game 5 with a win at home on Sunday.
This has been an intense series for both teams. Not only is this a rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals, but these two rosters are arguably the most talented in the entire league.
Las Vegas initially went down 2-0 in the series before making it 2-1 with a home win on Friday. During the first half of their Game 2 loss (which took place on October 1), Aces coach Becky Hammon was seen showing frustration toward her team during a timeout.
Becky Hammond has going absolutely apeshit on Kelsey Plum during this last timeout pic.twitter.com/J7fsjjBAot
— Mr. Acosta (@MrAcosta89) October 2, 2024
It initially appeared that Hammon was yelling directly at Aces guard Kelsey Plum during the timeout. But Hammon set the record straight about this when speaking with Callin Fin of the Las Vegas Review-Journal for an article that was published on October 5.
“I wasn’t yelling at Kelsey Plum. I was yelling at the group," Hammon said, according to Fin. "She just happens to give me great eye contact when I yell. She looks me dead in the eye.
"I was mad at the team,” she continued.
There's no question that Plum and Hammon have a great relationship with one another; which has been proven by some of their interactions during press conferences. Not to mention that the Aces' two WNBA championships in the past two years show that Hammon knows how to get through to her team.
The question now becomes whether she can help lead the Aces from the brink of elimination by the Liberty.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.