The Las Vegas Aces don’t seem to be letting the pressures of success get to them, as the WNBA leaders have been staying light and loose during practice.
During Thursday’s practice, the team held a “team bonding” exercise in which players smacked one another with tortillas — their version of the tortilla slap challenge that is going viral on TikTok.
Players held water in their mouths while teammates hit their faces with tortillas. As soon as players lost said water, usually due to uncontrollable laughter, they were knocked out.
The battle continued until just one player was left standing: Jackie Young, the Aces’ tortilla slap champion.
Anybody surprised @JackieYoung3 won? 😂 https://t.co/jdoJvCEqRF
— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) June 9, 2022
Even first-year coach Becky Hammon can be seen cracking up on the sidelines toward the end of the video, though she did not partake in the challenge herself.
The tortilla fight continued an already eventful week at practice for Las Vegas.
Dearica Hamby and Kelsey Plum (who, for the record, are close friends) have been waging a prank war on one another. The teammates started small, but they’ve been escalating: During a play date on June 3, Plum got Hamby’s daughter Amaya involved as the duo ambushed Hamby with water balloons while she ate lunch at a restaurant.
Don’t play with me @dearicamarie 😂😘😝 https://t.co/jOt9HFM775 pic.twitter.com/5XD0LqX22E
— Kelsey Plum (@Kelseyplum10) June 4, 2022
After that, Hamby sought her revenge. Ahead of practice Wednesday, Hamby and Amaya splashed Plum’s car with neon paint.
“Go get your car cleaned, Kelsey,” Hamby said in a video she shared of the prank. “Love you!”
#NationalBestFriendsDay 🫣🫣🫣 https://t.co/8wPjex4Rws pic.twitter.com/q4nqg7BOdq
— Dearica Marie Hamby (@dearicamarie) June 9, 2022
But the reveal didn’t quite go as planned. A stranger called the police, who then showed up at practice seemingly prepared to arrest Hamby for vandalism.
https://t.co/SLp5CSYema pic.twitter.com/iQG0GyHDAj
— Dearica Marie Hamby (@dearicamarie) June 9, 2022
Luckily, Hamby and Plum worked everything out… and Hamby got the last laugh with a well-placed hit to Plum’s chin in the tortilla slap challenge the next day.
😂😂@Kelseyplum10 @_ajawilson22 @dearicamarie pic.twitter.com/0McHzPgtqs
— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) June 9, 2022