This week, the University of Washington Department of Athletics announced that they retire Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum’s #10 jersey, during a ceremony scheduled for January 18, 2025, inside Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Plum becomes the first women’s basketball player in UW history to have a jersey retired and the sixth Husky to hang from the rafters overall (Bob Houbregs – MBB, Brandon Roy – MBB, Isaiah Thomas – MBB, Courtney Thompson – VB, Krista Vansant – VB).
“I’m forever proud to be a Husky and UW is a special place that fundamentally shaped me both as a basketball player and as a person,” Plum said in press release. “It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up at the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I’ve admired for so long.”
At Washington (2013-17), Plum became the all-time NCAA scoring leader (3,527 points – stood until 2024) and broke the 33-year-old NCAA career free throw record (912). She broke the single-season NCAA scoring record with 1,109 points in 2016-17 (stood until end of 2023-24 season). Plum became UW’s all-time three-point leader, the Pac-12’s all-time single-season scoring leader, and set the Pac-12 single-game scoring record (57) in an instantly legendary game where she broke Jackie Stiles’s all-time career points record.
Plum was the No. 1 pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft, the first No. 1 overall pick in Washington basketball history. She was just the fourth Pac-12 player to be selected No. 1. In 2021, Plum was named the WNBA’s Sixth Woman of the Year. Her incredible 2022 season included a starting spot in the WNBA All-Star Game then scoring a WNBA All-Star record 30 points, earning All-Star MVP. Plum capped off the 2022 season being named to the All-WNBA First Team, and ultimately, became an WNBA Champion when the Las Vegas Aces won. Plum earned a second-consecutive WNBA Championship title in 2023 with the Aces.
Most recently, Plum won gold with Team USA Basketball at the 2024 Paris Olympics, helping the USA women secure their eighth straight – and 10th overall – Olympic gold medal.
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