Kelsey Plum Has A Point. Dudes Who Stand Out Front Of Team Hotels Waiting To Get Autographs From Athletes Are Very Weird, Low Key
Obviously the WNBA has been gaining attention like never before. You can give credit to all the players who came before Caitlin Clark for keeping the league afloat for as long as they have. But it would take a belligerently braindead buffoon to not realize how Caitlin Clark has single-handedly managed to skyrocket the WNBA's popularity.
Every player in the WNBA is benefiting from the exposure that Caitlin Clark has brought to the league. Exposure is great because it means more viewership, which means more money being brought into the league, which means higher salaries. But the downside to exposure is now you have to deal with the autograph freaks figuring out what hotels the away teams are staying at, and buzzing around like a bunch of scavengers trying to get signatures to turn around and sell.
This incident has me as conflicted as I've ever been in my life. I truly, for the life of me, cannot decide who is worse in this video. You can say it's an awful look for Kelsey Plum, because the WNBA should be thankful to have fans. They should be dying to sign autographs, knowing how important the fans are to the rise of the league. At the same time...these aren't fans. These are just grifters with a Sharpie. If it was a bunch of little girls standing out there to get Kelsey Plum's autograph, I'm sure she'd be pumped about it. But some dude with a binder full of cards shoving a Sharpie in her face? That's just a guy who is looking to turn her signature into a couple hundred dollars.
But at the same time, it comes with the territory. But at the same time, maybe the collector scene in sports is actually pretty fucking weird. I've never been a big autograph guy in the first place. If I see an athlete I'm a fan of in person, I'd much rather just give them a quick soft-smile and a head nod to acknowledge my respect for them. I'd feel like a fool asking them to messily write their name on a piece of paper to commemorate the interaction. But what I really never understood is someone who will then turn around and purchase an autographed piece of memorabilia. You didn't even get the autograph yourself. What is the point of that, even? The fact that something is now worth money because an athlete wrote their name on it will never not be bizarre to me.
So I think my final verdict here is that the autograph hawkers definitely suck more in this video. But WNBA players haven't had to deal with them for nearly long enough to be that annoyed by their existence. So maybe just sign a bunch of autographs for the next few years while the league is still rising.