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The Washington Mystics lost 80-70 to the Atlanta Dream in their preseason finale on Wednesday, but No. 4 overall pick KiKi Iriafen stood out with 12 points (6-8 FG), six rebounds and one assist in 20 minutes. The USC alum led the bench in scoring and the entire team in boards.
On top of that, she was mentored by her idol-turned-opponent Brittney Griner mid-game.
Kiki Iriafen told me that it was crazy to guard one of her idols in Brittney Griner for the first time. She said that BG advised her to stay aggressive while they were playing, which is funny since they’re opponents.
Head coach Sydney Johnson also called BG an “amazing person.” pic.twitter.com/tbzFb9Fkhd
— Joshua Valdez (@joshvaldez100) May 7, 2025
“It's so crazy because they're like your idols and people that you watched growing up,” she said after the contest. “To be guarding them, and them guarding you…I will say that BG was talking to me the whole game and giving me advice. I was like, ‘We're guarding each other!' It was kind of surreal to see how much the vets, even the vets on my team, are pouring into us rookies…I know when we play them for real on May 16, they won't be that same way, but she gave me a lot of tips and told me to be aggressive…It was just super nice to play against someone you've looked up to.”
There's no better person to learn from in the WNBA than Griner. The 10-time All-Star is not only one of the best players ever, but is also a model of resiliency, as she was imprisoned in Russia in 2022 for carrying less than a gram of medically prescribed “hash oil” in her luggage. She traveled there to play in the Russian Premier League during the WNBA offseason.
Griner was later released in a prisoner exchange and returned to the Phoenix Mercury in May 2023. The 6-foot-9-inch center didn't lose a step, nearly matching her career averages with 17.5 points per game on 56 percent shooting as well as 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks.
After 11 seasons with the Mercury, Griner signed with the Dream this past January to team up with other established veterans like Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray and Tina Charles.
“She's an amazing person,” Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson said. “I don't know her from a hole in the wall, but I know her story, and I've seen how she interacts with players in our league…I'm not sure we're telling that story enough. Not only in terms of what she's been through, but how she conducts herself, like even right now. She's so good, and yet she's just a giver, at least from my lens. That's certainly something that we value. In terms of sisterhood, she seems to walk that walk. Just very impressed by her.”
Iriafen will be successful if she emulates Griner's aggressiveness, one of the latter's signature traits. The rookie is six inches shorter, but she can make up for that with the talent and athleticism that helped her earn third-team All-American honors with the Trojans last season.
Kiki Iriafen calls Mystics ‘a team of somebodies'
Iriafen excelled in college thanks to her size, strength, tenacity, and skill both in the post and midrange. However, the 21-year-old has quickly realized that it'll be harder to dominate at the next level.
Kiki Iriafen said that playing at USC taught her how to deal with adversity and make an impact on both ends of the floor. She’s also noticed how fast and strong WNBA players are compared to the NCAA after just a few days of training camp. pic.twitter.com/csY2X6hsSe
— Joshua Valdez (@joshvaldez100) May 1, 2025
“It's fast,” she said about the pro game after practice on May 1. “Everybody's fast, even the person who you think is not fast. Everybody's strong, everybody's good. Everybody that's on this team has been somebody at whatever college they were at, so it's a whole team of somebodies, which is super exciting. But it's just competitive, super competitive every single day. I think that's the best part, truly, for me. I'm getting better by having to go against some great players.”
It's easier for the best collegiate players to get by on talent and athleticism, but WNBA hoopers need resiliency and high basketball IQ to succeed. Luckily for Washington, Iriafen already understands that.
“I think I learned how to deal with adversity,” she said about her USC career. “I know my rookie year's not gonna be easy, playing against some of the best players in the world. I think my time at USC taught me how to persevere through things. Also, how to make an impact. If I'm not scoring, how can I make it defensively, offensively? I think I'm leaning into that a lot, just showing that I'm more than one-sided, that I can do different things on the court.”
Iriafen's rebounding has been an early sign of her non-scoring impact. The 2025 first-team All-Big Ten honoree leads the bench with 11 boards across both preseason games, and the Mystics might need more of that from her when the regular season starts, depending on the health of frontcourt pillars Shakira Austin (leg) and Aaliyah Edwards (back).
Washington will host Atlanta again to kick off the 2025 campaign on May 16.
