WNBA star’s inspiration is provided by parents Katie and Jim Plum

Kelsey Plum took up sports like her dad. She represents the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA as an American basketball player.

She is one of the most feared players by rivals due to her superb body and in-depth knowledge of the game. She broke some old records while playing collegiate basketball for the University of Washington before joining the Aces.

The NCAA Division I women’s basketball all-time scoring record was broken by Plum on senior night, February 25, 2017, when she scored a career-high 57 points and made 19 of her 28 shots. On March 20, 2017, Plum broke the NCAA single-season scoring record with 1,080 points, setting a new benchmark.

In the 2017 WNBA Draft, the San Antonio Stars selected her with the first overall pick. She made her professional debut against the Dallas Wings later that day, May 27. She came off the bench in a 94-82 loss and had four points and one assist. She has since raised the bar for her performance and emerged as one of the league’s most gifted and skilled players.

Kelsey Plum
Kelsey Plum

Kelsey Plum’s Parents, Mom, Dad, and More Inside

Every member of Kelsey’s family has some connection to sports. She was born on August 24, 1994, to American parents Jim and Katie Plum in Poway, California. She has been involved in numerous sports-related activities since she was a young child, which finally led her to pursue a career in athletics.

In La Mesa, California, Jim, Kelsey’s father, was an All-American football player. He then continued playing baseball and football for San Diego State. Katie, her mother, played volleyball at Davis University in North Carolina. She was the best athlete at the school.

The Plums’ other kids, in addition to Kelsey, are all athletes. The other two daughters of the couple both pursued professional volleyball careers, following in the footsteps of their mother. Daniel Plum, their lone child, had participated in collegiate football for UC Davis. We don’t know his current circumstances because he is currently being incognito.

Ten Details About Kelsey Plum’s Family and Siblings

The Plum clan stands out on their own. Nowadays, it is uncommon to see an entire family work in the same field, but the Plum family is an exception. They are one of the most well-known families in American sports because of their distinctiveness.

Additionally, our staff has compiled some intriguing details about the Plum family that you may not be aware of. Let’s examine each of these facts in turn from the list below.

  1. Katie, Kelsey’s mother, previously competed in professional volleyball for the University of California. She was quite athletic, and her children decided to pursue careers in sports after her example.
  2. Jim Plum, her father, was a specialist in two different sports. He was named an All-American while playing high school football in La Mesa, California. Later, he took part in baseball and football NCAA teams at San Diego State.
  3. The sisters of Kelsey play volleyball professionally, carrying on their mother’s legacy. Her older sister Kaitlyn represents UC Davis, while Lauren, her younger sister, participates for the University of Oregon and the USA Volleyball Junior National Team.
  4. Daniel Plum, Kelsey’s lone and only sibling, played football while attending UC Davis. Since he has maintained his anonymity and hasn’t even been photographed in recent times with his family, it is uncertain if he continued his football career.
  5. The Plums are of European descent. Despite having lived the majority of their lives in the United States, they have European cultural roots. The entire family is a US national and holds US citizenship.
  6. Kelsey won the U19 World Championship gold medal. Plum was chosen for the USA Basketball U19 team by Katie Meier, the head coach of the University of Miami. With an average winning margin of 43 points per game, the team won all nine games. Plum competed for the USA at the tenth FIBA U19 World Championship, which was held in Lithuania’s Klaipeda and Panevezys in July 2013.
  7. Plum’s WNBA selection made history. Plum was selected first overall by the San Antonio Stars in the 2017 WNBA draught. The top selection in the same academic year came from the same university for the first time in NBA and WNBA history.
  8. Injury forced Kelsey to sit out the 2020 campaign. At the start of June 2020, she suffered an Achilles tendon injury. Due to the damage and the process to fix it, she missed that season. Without Plum, her club had an 18-4 record in their 22-game, hurried season. They reached the championship round but were defeated by the Seattle Storm in a three-game sweep.
  9. In June 2017, Plum graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Washington University. She began attending the university in 2013 and quickly made a name for herself as one of its most gifted athletes and students.
  10. During her senior year, Kelsey was selected for the Associated Press All-American First Team. There are just five women’s collegiate basketball players who receive this accolade. Plum is one of the five players still in the running for the Wooden Award, which is given to the best woman’s collegiate basketball player. Plum averaged 31.7 points per game while shooting 53% from the field and 43% from three-point range during her senior campaign.

Kelsey Plum Early life

Katie and Jim Plum are Plum’s parents. Plum is their daughter. Her mother played collegiate volleyball at the University of California, Davis, where she achieved a high level of success. Her father was a two-sport athlete at San Diego State University, playing both football and baseball. He received All-American accolades while playing high school football in La Mesa, California, and went on to play both sports at the varsity level at San Diego State. Plum has two sisters who are older than she is and a brother who is younger. Both of her sisters followed in their mother’s footsteps and played volleyball. Her mother was a volleyball player. Her older sister, Kaitlyn, played for the University of California Davis, while her younger sister, Lauren, played for the University of Oregon and for the USA Junior National Team in volleyball. Her younger brother Daniel went to UC Davis and played football there. Kelsey started out playing volleyball and was very successful in the USA Volleyball junior system. When it came time for her to choose a high school, however, she decided to enrol at La Jolla Country Day School rather than Poway High School, which was the institution that both of her sisters had attended. Plum, meanwhile, opted to play basketball rather than volleyball. Candice Wiggins spent her junior and senior years of high school playing volleyball at La Jolla Country Day School.

High school Career

Plum finished her high school career with a total of 2,247 points, good for an average of 19.9 points scored per game. She had 370 steals, helped her teammates score 381 points, and recorded 677 rebounds in her career. Her squad finished with a record of 103–22 over the course of her four years of coaching, which resulted in four section titles and the CIF Division IV state championship in 2012.

Plum was given a spot on the WBCA High School Coaches’ All-America Team for 2013. She took part in the WBCA High School All-America Game in 2013, during which she made six of her eight attempts at field goals, resulting in a total of 14 points.

When it came time to select a college, Plum gave serious consideration to attending either Maryland or Virginia on the east coast, as well as Cal, Gonzaga, Oregon, or Washington on the west coast. In the end, she made the decision to take the offer from Washington.

McDonald’s has honoured Plum with the All-American title. She was awarded the title of Ms. Basketball by CalHiSports, which is given to the female high school basketball player in California who is considered to be the greatest overall. As a result, she was eligible to compete in the 2013 McDonald’s All-American Girls Game. Winners in the past have included people like Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Courtney Paris, Candice Wiggins, and Diana Taurasi.

Kelsey Plum
Kelsey Plum

College Career

Freshman year

Plum chose to fly straight to Seattle from Lithuania after helping the USA basketball team win the gold medal rather than returning to San Diego first and then flying up to school. On the day she left Lithuania, she was in the gym exercising. She was able to enrol in summer school courses and get to know the university and her teammates before the start of the fall quarter by going straight to school. She was named team captain before the season began, which is unusual for a freshman, after her head coach Mike Neighbors observed her eagerness to get going. She broke six freshman records at Washington during her first year. Her 695 total points scored set a rookie scoring record, as well as her 38-point single-game high. She was named the Pac-12 Conference’s Freshman of the Year. During the regular season, she scored nearly 21 points per game on average.

A victory over Stanford, the nation’s fourth-ranked team, was one of the year’s high points. The top scorer was Plum, who had 23 points.

Sophomore year

Washington’s regular-season schedule began with a matchup versus Oklahoma. Washington lost the game 90–80, but Plum’s 45 points set a new school mark. She was included on the “Wade Watch” list of 25 players in her second season who are thought to have a chance at winning player of the year honours. Additionally, she was included on the list of 30 athletes who were up for the Wooden Award. Plum assisted the Washington Huskies in obtaining an NCAA Tournament invitation. They coincidentally played Miami, who were led by Katie Meier, Plum’s former USA Basketball U19 team coach. Despite Plum’s 17 points in the contest, Miami won 86-80.

Junior Year

Plum was selected the Pac-12 Player of the Week as well as the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Week for the week of January 11–17. She ranked first in the Pac-12 and fourth in the US with 25.9 points per game. Additionally, Plum guided the Huskies to an incredible NCAA Tournament run, culminating in their first-ever appearance in the Final Four. Unfortunately, the incredible run came to an end in the Final Four when Plum and the Huskies were defeated 80-59 by a Syracuse Orange team that was stronger and more talented than them and had already secured their first-ever Final Four appearance. The Connecticut Huskies, who were 37-0 overall and the three-time defending women’s national champions, overcame the Orange in the end, 82-51.

Senior Year

In a victory over Boise State on December 11, 2016, Plum overtook Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike to take up the title of Pac-12 history’s top scorer for either gender. Plum reached 3,000 career points the next month, against Arizona, becoming the 12th player in NCAA Division I women’s basketball and the first Pac-12 player to do it. Plum set a Pac-12 record with 57 points on February 25, 2017, in the Huskies’ final regular-season game against Utah, winning 84-77. Plum set a record for career scoring in NCAA Division I women’s basketball thanks to the production. She entered the game 53 points behind Jackie Stiles’ previous record of 3,393 points, but in the fourth quarter she shattered it. During her senior year, Plum coached the Washington Huskies to a 29-6 overall record and a 15-3 Pac-12 mark. Plum and the third-seeded Washington Huskies advanced to the NCAA tournament regional semifinals before being defeated by the second-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs.

In women’s collegiate basketball, only five players are chosen as members of the Associated Press All-American First Team, only Plum received unanimous selection. During her senior season, Plum averaged 31.7 points while shooting 53 percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point range. With 1,109 points scored overall by the end of her senior year, Plum set a single-season record for women’s basketball in the NCAA. Plum, who amassed 912 points from the free throw line over her successful career, reportedly shattered the NCAA career free throw record. In addition, according to 250 sportscasters and writers, Plum is one of the five finalists for the Wooden Award, which is given to the finest player in women’s college basketball. Plum became the first ever Washington Husky to win the AP Player of the Year title for women’s collegiate basketball. According to The Seattle Times website, Plum also won the Pac-12 Player of the Year title during her senior year, making her only the second husky to ever receive the honour. She also made the all-Pac-12 team. In addition, Plum received the Dawn Staley Award, given to the greatest guard in women’s collegiate basketball, and the Nancy Lieberman Award, given to the finest point guard in the sport. With 3,527 points and 519 assists, Plum completed a great career. Regardless of gender, she came in just 270 points short of Pete Maravich’s all-time scoring mark. Plum earned a bachelor’s in anthropology from Washington in June 2017.

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