Mercury star Kahleah Copper’s Olympic teammates Kelsey Plum and A’ja Wilson directed a choice word toward her after Sunday’s gold medal win at the Olympics, but it’s all good.
It starts with a ”b” but doesn’t mean “buckets,’ even though Copper makes plenty of those when she’s places Team USA or the Phoenix Mercury (13-12) on her back to win games in the clutch.
After Team USA beat France, 67-66, in the closing seconds for the gold medal on Sunday, Plum posted a social media photo of Copper sleeping during the team’s Monday plane ride home to the United States.
“That BISSSH tired lol,” Plum wrote with a two-finger peace sign emoji before the additional word “Paris” in the caption.
Copper reposted the photo with her own lighthearted caption: “Count your days Plum.”
Copper and Plum matched each other scoring 12 points against France in Sunday’s gold-medal game won by Team USA, with two and four assists, respectively. Wilson had a game-high 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Copper had 10 of her points between the third and fourth quarters, and helped bring the Americans back from down 10 early in the third quarter, their largest deficit of the tournament. She grabbed four of her total five rebounds on defense, added two steals, and sealed the victory with two made free throws at five seconds left.
In her postgame NBC interview, Wilson was asked how she’d describe Copper’s second-half takeover.
“That b—h!” Wilson replied as she walked away with a whimsical smile. It was all in good fun, though NBC may have been taken by surprise.
Copper seemingly has more public banter with Plum than her Las Vegas Aces teammate Wilson.
During Team USA’s All-Star Weekend media availability on July 19, Plum comically set off the media scrum around Copper, “Can anyone guard you at all? Let me know, we’re trying to find out.”
Copper simply laughed and responded, “Hello, Kelsey.”
Copper is the Mercury’s top scorer and WNBA’s second-best in that category at 23.2 per game. Her eight games scoring 30-plus are the most in the league this season.
Phoenix will end their four-game season series against the two-time defending champion Las Vegas (16-8) at home on Sept. 1 , which Las Vegas leads 2-1. Copper’s season-high 37 points was in the Mercury’s 98-88 win over the Aces on May 21. The Mercury resume play this Thursday at the Chicago Sky.