The Washington Mystics were absolutely loaded with capital before the 2025 WNBA Draft. The franchise had the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6 picks, which they utilized to select three potential franchise cornerstones.
The team wound up taking Notre Dame wing Sonia Citron, USC forward Kiki Iriafen and Kentucky guard Georgia Amoore. Unfortunately, Amoore suffered a knee injury in the preseason, but both Citron and Iriafen have gotten off to a hot start in their rookie campaigns.
Iriafen especially has turned heads with her first five performances, and many believe that she is the current frontrunner for the WNBA Rookie of the Year award right now. Winning it would allow her to get a bit of revenge on Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers.
Kiki Iriafen could get revenge on Paige Bueckers in WNBA ROY race
In the 2025 NCAA Tournament, Bueckers and the UConn Huskies took down Iriafen and the USC Trojans by a score of 78-64, which ended Iriafen's college career. Bueckers scored 31 points in the contest and led her team to a national championship, which is surely still a thorn in Iriafen's side.
However. winning one of the league's most coveted awards would make up for her previous shortcoming, as many believed Bueckers was the favorite before the season. Instead, Iriafen has made history through her first five contests.
According to ESPN's Alexa Philippou, Iriafen became just the second player in league history to record four double-doubles in her first five career games. She also has the most rebounds by a player through their first five career games since 1999, per Real Sports.
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Her achievements do not stop there, however, as she also became the fastest player to reach 50 points and 50 rebounds in the WNBA since 1999 (Polymarket Hoops). Iriafen is averaging 13.8 points and 11.2 rebounds per game while also shooting an incredibly efficient 51% from the floor.
Bueckers, by contrast, has not had her best stuff through her first four games. She is averaging 13.0 points, 6.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds, but her team is 0-4 compared to Iriafen's 2-3 Mystics that have been competitive in every game.
There are still roughly 40 games to be played by each team and player, which means that plenty will change over the coming months. However, if Iriafen can continue to throw together strong performances like she has in the early going, she may be able to dethrone Bueckers and get revenge by winning the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year award.