Kelsey Plum Gave Her Olympic Gold Medal to Her Mom: 'She’d Keep It a Lot Safer Than I Would' (Exclusive)

Kelsey Plum's Olympic gold medal is safe and sound — with her mom.

"I gave it to my mom because I thought she'd keep it a lot safer than I would," the 30-year-old WNBA star exclusively tells PEOPLE, referring to the Olympic gold she won with Team USA basketball at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"I don't want to be responsible for any lost or stolen items, so I was like, 'Yeah, I'm just going to give it to Mom,'" Plum quips during the interview about her collaboration with smartwater.

The WNBA season took a hiatus during the Summer Games so its stars could compete in Paris. But Plum and the other Team USA athletes went right back into the season after winning gold, leaving little time for any extra R&R.

"We were in Paris for a month and came back straight to playing games. So to be honest, I really just try to catch up on sleep and sitting by the pool when I can," she says of her free time lately.

The Las Vegas Aces, meanwhile, are looking to win their third consecutive WNBA championship this season with Plum and MVP A'ja Wilson, who also represented the U.S. in Paris.

"We have a lot of fun together," she says of her teammates. "It's no surprise even on social media and stuff, you see us clowning each other or just laughing. We really do enjoy each other's presence."

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Plum says she "can't" reveal the name of the team's group chat, but promises it's "really funny." She also says they can often be found playing You Can't Say Umm when they're killing time.

"It's basically a word game that you're trying to describe a word on the card without saying 'um.' It sounds kind of dumb, but it's actually really fun because we all say any type of pause word like, 'uh,' or 'um,' or any type of 'like.' So it's really fun to get to see people struggle to try to come up with words," the athlete shares, adding that in addition to the party game, "we play cards."

As part of her collaboration with smartwater, Plum — a self-proclaimed "pH 9.5 alkaline girly" — says she partnered with the water brand because "it's something I've been drinking on my own for a long time."

"I know that smartwater is now in the cross section of culture, sports, fashion, and it just felt like a really good fit. Those are all things I'm super passionate about," she continues.

"I think that you can make an argument that the W's the hottest league in sports right now, just in terms of because it all has so many different cross sections, and these women are fire," Plums says of the league's increase in sponsorship opportunities in recent seasons.