Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces took to Twitter on Friday to express her frustration at NBA 2K’s exclusion of teammate and 2022 WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson.
NBA 2K posted a photo of their “featured WNBA jerseys” this season, and Wilson’s was not one of them.
“Bro I’m sick of this…. Where is the @_ajawilson22 jersey?????” Plum wrote in a tweet.
Bro I'm sick of this.... Where is the @_ajawilson22 jersey????? https://t.co/pMYuOvMUrr
— Kelsey Plum (@Kelseyplum10) October 7, 2022
The image shows the jerseys of Courtney Vandersloot, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Candace Parker.
Plum and Wilson led the Aces to their first WNBA championship in franchise history in a four-game series win over the Connecticut Sun in September. Wilson was named 2022 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year in addition to her MVP honor.
The selective marketing of WNBA players has been a topic of conversation — and frustration — in the league for many years. In an ESPN profile of Jonquel Jones this season, star players, including Wilson, talked about the double standards for women athletes when it comes to what brands consider traditionally marketable.
“Even though our league is predominantly Black, I think it’s hard for our league to push us, in a sense, because they still have to market, in their mind, what is marketable,” Wilson told ESPN’s Katie Barnes. “Sometimes a Black woman doesn’t check off those boxes.”