It was draft day, and all the beautiful rookies pulled up with exotic dresses. Kiki Iriafen was the sun of the night as she wowed the fans with her all-gold dress, and you know she had a pair of shoes to match. The USC Trojans star joined Sonia Citron at the Washington Mystics as they selected Iriafen fourth overall after getting Citron at third. 

Iriafen has started in golden form for the Mystics, just like her outfit at the draft. She has been the torchbearer of the youngster revolution in Washington. Iriafen has impressed by scoring 13.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, along with Citron, who has 14.3 points and 2.0 assists per game. The rookie duo has propelled them to a 3-4 start, which is a massive upgrade to a 0-12 start last year. The rebuild is well and truly underway, and they will be facing the Indiana Fever once again. 

Just hours before the game, Iriafen revealed a bold new hairstyle to bring in new energy for her. She has surprised the fandom by getting golden locks and showed it off on her Instagram story as well as on her TikTok. She captioned her look, which had the slight glow of the sun touching her face, on Instagram by writing, “New Shade unlocked.”

On TikTok, she captioned that short video as,”Goldilocks.” That killer new look earned an approval from her teammate and former Kentucky star Georgia Amoore, who was quick to comment,”Appropriate asf.” Amoore is unfortunately out for the season with an ACL injury, but it’s nice to see she is still involved with her teammates. 

The Mystics are coming off an 85-63 loss to the New Liberty in the WNBA, and hopefully this new hairstyle provides Iriafen and the team some motivation for the upcoming Commissioners’ Cup. They dominated the Clark-less Fever just last week, with Iriafen scoring 16 points and getting 8 rebounds while Brittney Sykes scored 21 with 9 rebounds. Caitlin Clark will be missing once again from the Fever lineup, and the Mystics will hope to take full advantage of that. 

The Rookie of The Year Race might be among Mystics’ teammates

The rookie of the year for the 2025 season was largely expected to be uncontested, with Paige Bueckers being the outright favorite to win that coveted award. Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen have come out of the syllabus for the fans and the bookies too. Citron and Iriafen had the odds of +400 and +800, respectively, while Bueckers was at -400. 

Citron has already become the first rookie this season to reach 100 points and has averaged 14.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists from her first seven games. Against Atlanta and Las Vegas last month, she achieved season highs of 19 points. Iriafen has also been amongst the records as she became just the second WNBA player ever to record four double-doubles in her first five career games. The feat was only previously accomplished by four-time All-Star Natalie Williams in 1999. Williams, a No. 3 overall pick with the Utah Starzz, ultimately finished fifth in MVP voting and was named First Team All-WNBA in her inaugural season. That is a high bar for Iriafen to live up to, but if she maintains her form, she has the caliber to get there. 

Bueckers has been living up to her hype as well, averaging 15.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game in her first five games. Numbers only touched by Caitlin Clark in her first games last year. Over 6 games, she has 14.7 points and 6.7 assists per game. If she keeps this energy up in this broken Dallas side, this will prove to be a tasty three-way race for the Rookie of the Year. 

Iriafen’s impact, however, has stretched beyond the numbers, as she has not let the Mystics feel the losses of Shakira Austin and Aaliyah Edwards, especially in the paint. Even in last week’s matchup against the Fever, she outshined both Aaliyah Boston and Natasha Howard. Boston was limited to just 10 points on five shot attempts, while Howard scored 11 but committed five turnovers. With Catlin Clark still on the bench with her quad injury, containing these two becomes the top priority.

Meanwhile, Iriafen continued doing what she has done all season: dominating the boards, finishing with power, and making her presence impossible to ignore. This matchup will once again be under the magnifying lens in their game against Fever as the rookie looks to stamp her mark against some of the best.