PHOENIX (AP) — Kelsey Plum was 10 years old when she saw Diana Taurasi play on television, walked into the kitchen and told her mom she was going to play in the WNBA.
Not only did Plum fulfill her self-proclaimed prophecy by playing in the WNBA for nine seasons, she's now on Taurasi's former team, the Phoenix Mercury, following a blockbuster trade with the Los Angeles Sparks.
“It means everything,” Plum said prior to the Mercury's game at Chicago on Monday. “That was the reason I started playing basketball. She actually texted me today and said there’s no one she’d rather have, so I’m just very honored.”
An up-and-down, injury-plagued season put the Mercury teetering between being buyers or sellers at Sunday's WNBA trade deadline. At 11-19 prior to Monday's game, the Mercury are 11th in the WNBA, six games behind the New York Liberty for the final playoff spot with less than two months left in the season.
Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren doesn't like to be pigeon-holed into buying or selling, so he went into the trade deadline willing to see what options were out there.
All-Stars have rarely been traded in the WNBA’s history, yet the Mercury and U'Ren were able to pull off a whopper of a deal, adding one of the WNBA's best players for Monique Akoa Makani and two draft picks.
“Kelsey is one of the most impactful players in our league,” U’Ren said. “We’ve coveted her for a long time because of her skill, because of her toughness, because of her character, because of our work ethic. So for those reasons, I’m so excited to add to our current group.”
The current lineup includes do-everything forward Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper, key cogs in Phoenix's run to last year's WNBA Finals.
Plum adds a proven scorer and veteran presence to the Mercury mix.
Plum was the NCAA's all-time leading scorer while at Washington — Caitlin Clark passed her two years ago — and has scored at least 14.8 points per game the past six seasons. She's a five-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist who's still in the prime of her career at 31.
Prior to suffering a lower-leg injury in mid-June, Plum was averaging career-highs of 23.9 points and 6.4 assists while shooting 53% from the floor. She's second in the WNBA in scoring and sixth in assists.
“She fits with pretty much everybody," U’Ren said “Her experience fitting in with other great players or experience at a championship level all played into it, and made her really appealing to us.”
Plum was traded to the Sparks in a three-way deal that included her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, and Seattle prior to the 2025 season. She's a free agent after this season, yet was surprised upon learning she had been traded late Saturday night.
Plum went from expecting to make her return against Portland on Sunday to scrambling to join her new team. She used the time to familiarize herself with the Mercury, watching game film and going over the playbook during the trip.
Plum didn't make it to Chicago in time to practice with her team teammates, but is expected to play about 20 minutes in her first game.
“They’re great players and they’ve played with great players,” Plum said. “And so, it's really just trying to learn fast and not make the same mistake twice, and also just trust my instincts.”
Plum has trusted her instincts since she first saw Taurasi play on TV, pushing herself to become a WNBA player
Now, 21 years later, she's trying to help the team where Taurasi built her legacy push toward a playoff berth.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
FILE - Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum dribbles during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Indiana Fever, May 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Some residents returned to devastated neighborhoods in eastern Washington state to find their homes leveled by wildfires that erupted across a parched landscape over the weekend, covering yards in charred debris. In some cases, only chimneys were left standing.
The fires in and around Spokane, the state’s second-largest city, were among the most destructive in state history. About 700 buildings had been destroyed — a number that was expected to climb — and some 67,000 people were under evacuation orders. The cause was under investigation.
“There’s nothing to save,” Miriam Sim, 76, said Monday as she and her husband, Daniel Sim, surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005.
“At our age, do we want to rebuild?” her husband asked.
The fires jumped roads and rivers and had burned about 12.5 square miles (about 32 square kilometers) by Monday. The sky filled with smoke and haze. Calmer winds and lower temperatures arrived to help firefighters, but it was expected to be hot and dry again by midweek.
In one Spokane neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and houses were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties.
“Hundreds of people have completely lost their homes and farms, and many are prohibited from returning to their homes or neighborhoods as crews continue to extinguish smoldering embers,” the state's entire congressional delegation wrote Monday in asking President Donald Trump to approve an expedited emergency declaration.
Cpl. Mark Gregory, a spokesperson for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, said the county initially received nearly 300 reports of missing people, but by Monday they had cleared all but 14.
Those outstanding reports more likely represented people who had not been in contact since evacuating than people who were truly missing or in danger, authorities said.
The Spokane-area wildfires were completely uncontained, fire officials said. More than 1,000 firefighters, many from out of state, had arrived by Monday, and that number was expected to double in the next few days.
The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. stretching the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. At least 390 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) has burned across Washington, which has contended with severe drought and a paltry snowpack.
Authorities warned people not to fly drones near the burned areas, saying it could force them to delay aerial firefighting operations.
Angela and Wayde Deatherage, both 49, evacuated shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday with a son, grabbing a few bins of family photos and heirloom rings but not much else. Roughly 30 minutes later, their security camera was sending fire notifications to Angela’s phone.
Wayde Deatherage took some back roads and returned by early evening. He stopped at the end of the street and called his wife: “Our house is done.”
Deatherage, however, wasn't done with his neighborhood. He propped a hose at another house so it sprayed the property. That home survived.
The couple returned to their property Sunday.
“It’s just ash,” Angela Deatherage said of the home where they had lived for nearly 22 years. ”It’s like our house sunk down in the basement. ... There’s just so much loss for so many people.”
Karen Faggioli, 61, figured she would be returning to her home. She recalled how other recent fires had been brought under control. But a relative texted her the bad news: Her house and three vehicles were destroyed. A daughter lost her nearby house, too.
“Why cry? What’s crying going to do? I’ve been through so many tragedies myself,” said Faggioli, who is recovering from breast cancer. “This is nothing. Like I told my granddaughter, ‘We’re strong — and now we get all new things.’ I’m emotionally numb.”
Friends and relatives of fire victims posted online appeals for money, clothes and basic necessities.
Spokane was hardly the only place struggling to contain fires.
A lightning-caused fire that has burned over 530 square miles (about 1,370 square kilometers) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon continued to grow Monday. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.
In central Utah, a blaze quadrupled in size over the weekend to nearly 109 square miles (282 square kilometers) by Monday afternoon. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to law enforcement.
Heavy winds helped flames jump containment lines, but forward progression was slowed toward Fillmore, a town of about 2,600 people and the seat of Millard County, officials said. Mandatory evacuations were ordered Sunday evening for the town's southern portion, and inmates at the county jail were transferred.
In Spokane, about 400 people were staying at city's main convention center, which was turned into a shelter, officials said.
Spokane Public Schools opened a free emergency drop-in camp for children on Monday. Trials at the county court were pushed to Aug. 10.
Several larger fires continued to burn in less populated areas northwest of Spokane.
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Johnson reported from Seattle, and White from Detroit. Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Spokane; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; and Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed.
A worker with Avista moves through a property after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Miriam Sim, 76, reacts as she walks through the burned remains of her neighborhood after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Daniel Sim, 76, views the remains of his destroyed house after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Miriam Sim, 76, reacts while talking about her neighborhood largely burning to the ground after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Trees burned by a wildfire stand near destroyed structures in the Indian trail neighborhood, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Structures along W. Tiffany Ave. are burned to the ground after a wildfire, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
A vehicle and structure are burned on N. Skyline Dr. due to a wildfire, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Kimberley Sather stands at the duplex she rents on W. Indian Trail Rd. after it burned in a wildfire in Spokane, Wash., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
People watch Old Trails Fire from W. Northwest Blvd., Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Allen Sather and his wife Kimberley embrace at the duplex they rent on W. Indian Trail Rd. after it burned in a wildfire in Spokane, Wash., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
