Kiki Iriafen Becomes First Nigerian-American to Win WNBA Rookie of the Month

Nigerian-American professional basketball player, Kiki Iriafen, has been named the WNBA’s Kia Rookie of the Month for May 2025. The forward for the Washington Mystics of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) becomes the first player in Mystics history to earn this honour.

Across seven games in her debut month, Iriafen’s performance was consistently commanding. She averaged 13.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, shooting 47.4 percent from the field. Her numbers placed her among the top tier of the league: third among rookies in scoring, first in rebounding, and fourth overall in the WNBA for rebounds per game.

Between May 18 and 25, she racked up four double-doubles in a row, a feat matched by only one other rookie in WNBA history, Natalie Williams in 1999. In that same span, Iriafen also became the fastest Mystics rookie to reach 50 points and 50 rebounds.

She has, in the space of a month, placed herself in the lineage of the greats. Not since Tina Charles in 2010 has a rookie averaged at least 12.0 points and 10.0 rebounds with over 47% shooting in their opening month. She is also the first Mystics player to achieve that stat line since Crystal Langhorne, fifteen years ago.

Drafted fourth overall in April, Iriafen currently averages 14.6 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, shooting 51.7% from the field in 28.3 minutes per game.

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