Swanson: Kiki Iriafen’s smooth evolution from WNBA rookie to All-Star

LOS ANGELES — Something about Kiki Iriafen, the Washington Mystics’ Tarzana-born rookie forward – she’s not going to wait for your invitation.

No, she’ll do it herself, on her own timeline, make a beeline from A past B straight to the W, where her WNBA dream job is exceeding her own lofty expectations.

The 21-year-old former Harvard-Westlake basketball star – you might also know her from her season at USC, starring alongside JuJu Watkins – is an All-Star already.

She suited up for Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis along with fellow rookies Sonia Citron, Iriafen’s Mystics teammate, and Paige Bueckers, the Dallas Wings’ No. 1 overall draft pick. Iriafen had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds as the first-year trio made it just 36 WNBA rookies to participate in a WNBA All-Star Game since it debuted in 1999, per Across the Timeline.

“It’s incredible,” said Melissa Hearlihy, Iriafen’s former Harvard-Westlake coach. “But it’s not surprising.”

No, because this is Kiki Iriafen. And not so long ago, when she decided, in eighth grade, that she wanted to go to Harvard-Westlake, she filled out all the required forms and paperwork that give grownups headaches and presented them to her mom, Yemi, completed except for her signature. “I’m a very independent person,” Kiki said. “I like to get things done.”

This is Kiki Iriafen, who completed her degree in product design and mechanical engineering at Stanford – in three years, while, of course, playing Division I basketball. Who added a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation from USC while also trying to chase a championship with the Trojans.

This is Kiki Iriafen, whose fast track to professional All-Stardom – following Rookie of the Month out of the gate in May – has been so immediate, it has surprised even her: “Not even on my radar at all coming in.”

But the precocious power forward has checked in, a 6-foot-3 sponge – “She asks a lot of questions,” Trojans assistant coach Willnett Crockett told me – eager to learn and improve and, heck yes, to compete fiercely against fellow 4s, so many of whom are among the WNBA’s best players.

Iriafen is averaging nearly a double-double – 11.9 points and 8.5 rebounds on 46% shooting – for a surprisingly competitive Mystics team that is in the midst of a youth movement that’s proving more launching pad than incubator, with Citron and Iriafen, this year’s Nos. 3 and 4 picks, becoming the first pair of rookie All-Star teammates since 1999.

There’s wasting little time and wasting none; arriving early, right on time.

Because as women’s basketball is having a time here in the 2020s, Iriafen is among the game’s bright new All-Stars. Not a headliner like Caitlin and JuJu and Paige, perhaps, but she’s on the marquee.

After I heard her say last week that she found fashion and basketball gave her confidence as a tall girl growing up, I looked over my daughter’s shoulder as she flipped through August’s Vogue magazine to see Iriafen staring back at us in a Coach advertisement. Also, in April, she became the first college athlete to sign a sponsorship deal with Skechers, catch her playing in their coral-colored SKX Nexus sneakers. And hey now, she’s an All-Star.

“Kiki has a remarkable presence,” said Jamila Wideman, the Mystics’ general manager who was a popular rookie playing for the Sparks in the WNBA’s inaugural season in 1997. “She’s funny, she’s warm, she has a charisma. And if that is a part of being a star, then she has that.”

Iriafen also had the news of her transfer from Stanford to USC announced to the world via Woj bomb, an Adrian Wojnarowski social media post that landed during a Lakers playoff game: “Just in: Former Stanford F Kiki Iriafen – the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft – has committed to the USC Trojans, she tells ESPN. Iriafen will return to her LA home to team with Juju Watkins on a national title contender for coach Lindsay Gottlieb.”

There were a lot of reasons for the move: a shot at a national championship, playing for Gottlieb, coming home to L.A., no place like it.

And that the change turned out to be a challenge – statistically, Iriafen took a step back, and eventual champion UConn stopped the JuJu-less Trojans in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament – turned out to be a feature.

Not that collegians these days need additional incentives to transfer, but how about this from Wideman, the rookie GM who was also once a Stanford star: “You got to see her in a couple different situations in college. Her transfer for her last year and her ability to make that transition pretty quickly, to adapt under a gigantic spotlight, I think told you something about her person and her ability to adapt … to me, it spoke something to her bravery.”

They ought to offer degrees in adaptability, because Iriafen would be working toward one of those, too – or teaching the course.

“She’s just done a tremendous job of adapting and adjusting to the pros, the size and physicality,” said Lynne Roberts, who had to game plan for Iriafen in college as Utah’s head coach and now in her first year coaching the Sparks. “Playing against her in college, she was always big and strong and athletic and explosive, and I think she’s just kind of taking that to another level.”

What that means, Iriafen said, is applying her basketball education, “just putting my head down … just being adaptable and using the things that I’ve learned [at USC] to just impact any way I can on the Mystics.”

That’s also how she played at Harvard-Westlake, where she arrived having only started hooping in middle school. But she came with undeniable physical gifts and, importantly, a dream and a drive: “She never let anything get in her way,” said Hearlihy, who retired from coaching in 2024 after 39 years and 839 victories. “The most driven kid I’ve ever coached.”

A quick trip down memory lane in the L.A. Daily News archives documents how Iriafen steadily added to her bag, starting as a head-turning 6-1 freshman who led the team in scoring to super-sophomore gaining acclaim as the sixth-ranked prospect in the country.

As a junior, she was described as a “dominating,” “unstoppable” “budding superstar” with soft hands and impressive body control. A mentally tough, elite finisher who loved opening up the game for teammates on the way to a CIF Southern Section Division I crown.

And by the time she was a Stanford-bound senior, averaging 20.9 points and 15.8 rebounds, she’d “added a deadly shooting touch,” acquired “a solid package” of moves, earned recognition as a McDonald’s All-American and, twice, as the Daily News’ Player of the Year.

And last week, she was back, back again in L.A., this time having met and exceeded her initial professional goals. She was playing for the first time against the Sparks and in Crypto.com Arena, where she said she’d been so many times as a fan. A large contingent from the Trojans’ women’s basketball program was on hand Tuesday and DJ Mal-Ski, who also worked Iriafen’s USC games, played those familiar few notes of Drake’s 2018 hit “In My Feelings” – “Kiki, do you love me?” – a couple of times during the game as something of hello again.

The Sparks beat Washington, 99-80, handing the Mystics just their third loss in nine games and holding Iriafen to eight points and eight rebounds. A growth opportunity, she would probably tell you.

Afterward, at home on the road, Iriafen embraced Sparks center Cameron Brink – her former Stanford teammate – and slapped high-fives with fans, signed autographs and stopped for a few photos and selfies before disappearing into the tunnel for the last time before her All-Star Game debut.