Kelsey Plum wants to advocate for players, like addressing the ‘great challenge’

Kelsey Plum doesn’t take any of her opportunities lightly. Not the success — and she’s had plenty in the last 16 months — and not the sponsorship or partnership deals that have ballooned out of it. It’s all a step forward for the sport and the next step for Plum, 28, could largely impact that of the game.

The Las Vegas Aces champion told Yahoo Sports “it’s not official,” but she submitted a statement this week to run for vice president of the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA).

“I’m not much of a politician, but I am a firecracker,” Plum told Yahoo Sports, through her partnership with American Express and its NBA 2K23 Lab. “And so I feel like I can come in there and start some fires. I think that a lot of times people try to play nice and please people, and I’m not here to do that. I feel like my job, if elected, would be to represent the players at a true level and not just the top echelon of players, but the full range of players. I think that if given the opportunity, I’m really excited to go to work and go to bat.”

The WNBPA did not respond to an email for details regarding the process.

It’s been a constant go mode for Plum since she won the city of Las Vegas its first professional championship and a week later won the United States its fourth consecutive FIBA World Cup gold. In July 2021, she won Olympic gold in 3×3, and a year later, lifted the WNBA All-Star trophy. (Technically, she has two of them.)

As the accomplishments grow, so too do her partnerships in this new women’s sports ecosystem. Next week, she’ll compete in the American Express x NBA 2k23 Lab in an activation with Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu and NBAers Trae Young and RJ Barrett. She previously announced a deal with Google Pixel and Under Armor.

“I feel like this is a step in the direction where the game can grow and girls that are in high school right now or in college getting [name, image, likeness] deals and seeing pros that they watch that they can have better opportunities than I had,” Plum said. “It’s just one of those things that I feel is a part of a way to grow the game and grow the awareness of kind of the next step for the game.”

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She’s been open about her own view on next steps and league difficulties, including in a wide-ranging chat on “The Residency Podcast” that made the social media rounds last week for her comments on equal pay and revenue sharing. But if elected, she said her priorities as a vice president would depend on the players she’s voted to represent and not any of her own opinions.

“I’m not here representing myself,” she said. “I’m here to represent them.”

Plum’s platform, priorities as WNBPA VP

Plum is one of the Aces’ current player representatives with…