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This is an apology to Kiki Iriafen and Lauren Betts. Their unbound energy was a bubble of joy that had carried them away from our cover shoot set. Sorry, ladies, that we had to burst that bubble, interrupt your dancing and drag you back to take photos. Barging into your moment felt wrong. But it had to happen. This impending 2026 Mystics season deserves to be chronicled up front because the stage looks set for some capital gains. The Mystics’ core is young and ready to get active.
There are two All-Stars beginning their sophomore seasons. The aforementioned Iriafen, whose on-court skills manifest in versatility and vitality, is joined by Sonia Citron, the multifaceted scorer who lets her game speak more than her voice. Iriafen, the fourth overall pick in 2025 out of USC, and Citron, the third overall pick in ’25 out of Notre Dame, didn’t perform like normal rookies. They stared down the fear that the W produces in most rookies and they tackled it, coming out the other side at the top of most of Washington’s statistical categories.
Citron was second on the team in points per game, followed directly by Iriafen. Citron was first in field goals made per game and total made field goals. Iriafen was second in total made fields and tied for second in field goals made per game. This duo led the team in total minutes played, too. Iriafen led in total made free throws, total rebounds and rebounds per game. Citron led in total made threes, total steals and steals per game.
They were an exceptional duo, their reality years beyond where external expectations tried to hold them down. And they were missing a fellow rookie due to injury. Georgia Amoore, the sixth overall pick in ’25 out of Kentucky, tore her right ACL during last year’s training camp. The point guard from Australia missed the entire season. Amoore is a scoring machine, more shifty than the Roaring Forties. Defenders unwillingly sign up for a dance class when they try to contain her.
The Mystics’ incoming rookie from the ’26 Draft is Lauren Betts, selected with the fourth overall pick out of UCLA. The reigning national champ and March Madness MOP will be the center of attention this summer. Betts was an unassailable force in the middle throughout her college career whose passing and defensive IQ never got as much attention as her scoring ability.
These core four are all young enough to have competed against each other in college, and sometimes, with each other on different high-level exhibition teams. Those shared experiences from the past are helping to speed up their cohesion. Their chemistry is actually far ahead of what most understand.
“Ohhhh,” Betts enthusiastically extends her initial response to being asked about playing alongside Citron. “Oh, I'm excited to play with Sonia. I haven't played with you since U16 USA basketball,” Betts says in the direction of Citron.
“Yeah, since we were 15,” Betts continues after confirmation from her teammate. “So I'm just excited. I feel like Sonia and I work really well together. She throws really good passes and she is so skilled and great from anywhere. I'm honestly excited to watch her as, like, a spectator first. And then as my teammate, [to] play with her.”
This is an example of Betts’ charismatic spirit that has so many DC fans geeked about this year’s Mystics. Not only is she unguardable in the paint—she’s uncontainable off the court. She’s a real-deal entertainer who is always laughing, smiling and spreading glee. Betts and two of her UCLA teammates even learned a choreographed dance with the Bruins cheer squad a few months ago and performed it during a men’s basketball game at Pauley Pavilion. Betts confirms she would say yes to doing a Broadway show with the quickness (Hamilton, Wicked or Hairspray, we’re all looking at you to open your doors for LB).
Betts isn’t the only player on this roster with the ability to make everyone smile, though. Iriafen sets the vibe at will. The second-year pro has it all within her grasp. She can gracefully swivel between joking around, getting competitive and being vulnerable. She’s been blessed with the qualities of leadership, showing time and again that she can take charge at any given moment or sit back and let her teammates shine without any ill effects of ego clawing to be noticed. And this is just a description of her off the floor. Kiki was a high post offensive hub for coach Sydney Johnson last season, entrusted with playing point forward and having the green light to get her own shots.
Individually, Iriafen and Betts hold all the charm needed to enchant a whole city. Together, they’re catching all of DC under their spell. It’s an intoxicating mix of present-day skill and tomorrow-land potential, a frontcourt that can make interior passing look like art and rim protection look like a nightmare. Plus, they’ll be beside one another, filling every room and gym they enter with giggles, grins and dances. Lots and lots of dances.
Backing them up is the ever-smiling Amoore. Like Iriafen, Amoore is an expressive and generous teammate who is always ready to heap praise on her squad.
“Kiki just has that great vibe,” Amoore says of her fellow second-year teammate. “[Kiki] wants you to do amazing. She’s so smart and resilient. It doesn't matter if we've turned it over or something doesn't work; it’s the encouragement, and that's obviously going to push you through throughout the season. I’m excited to play with Kiki. Also, she's just poured a lot into me. Especially the past couple of weeks, we've had some good little vulnerability moments.”
Iriafen immediately chimes in with utter gratitude for her Aussie-born teammate and wastes no time returning the praise.
“Georgia is just such an amazing person and she's so selfless,” Iriafen says. “She wants the best for everybody else, she is putting everyone above herself. I think just that [her] leadership—like even from the sidelines last season, we valued her voice and I just value her friendship as a person.
“I don't want to cry right now, but I think my favorite thing about Georgia is just how authentic she is,” Iriafen continues. “She’s herself, she's funny, she's goofy, she knows how to lock in, she knows how to bring everyone around her up. So I just hope to one day be, like, a sliver of Georgia.”
Sitting next to each other in our interview, Iriafen and Amoore pass these compliments back and forth with the intense speed of a dribble-less two-on-one fast break. The kind of exchange that leaves the helpless defender dizzy and the opposing coach mystified while stomping onto the floor to call a much-needed time-out. The Mystics faithful and front office would be puddles if they could be in this room right now.
For all of the energy that Iriafen and Betts bring, and the easy-going leadership that Amoore brings, Citron is the unshakeable foundation holding them all up. This is why it’s coming together in DC. The ingredients are mixing perfectly.
Citron chooses her words carefully. Sometimes she chooses funny words. Sometimes she chooses only a few words. Sometimes she speaks her mind completely. These decisions mirror her shot selections. She can dial in from three with ease, she can knife her way into the midrange, she can navigate all the way to the tin—varying distances, differing volumes.
“From our first game to our last, you could just tell how much more confident she was,” Iriafen says about Citron. “I feel like at the beginning of the season it was just like if she got the ball, cool. I think toward the end, she was aggressive, she was looking for herself, but then also looking for teammates. She was always moving, the best three-point shooter in the League [Citron led the W in three-point percentage—Ed.], so I could just see her confidence in every single game. She just became more and more sure of herself.”
Citron also noticed Iriafen’s evolution as their first year together went on.
“I would say the biggest thing I saw in Kiki was just her ability to slow the game down. I feel like in the beginning, I remember you would always talk about how our coaches would say, Slow is pro,” Citron says to Iriafen. “And I feel like I really saw Kiki work on it, and just as the games went on, you saw the game slow down for her and she didn't let people speed her up even though she was playing against all-time greats. I just think that she settled down and realized, like, it doesn't have to be all one speed, and she didn't let people take her out of her spots.”
As Betts mentioned earlier, she and Citron have experience as teammates. Their U16 team won gold in Chile. They led the red, white and blue to a perfect 6-0 record and were both named to the FIBA Under-16 Women’s Americas All-Tournament Team. Betts averaged 12.2 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in that tournament, and Citron went for averages of 13.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists. They already know how to win together.
“I haven't played with you in so long,” Citron says to Betts. But there’s a lot to be excited about now that they get to team up again. “One is just, she's so eager to learn. I don't consider myself a vet at all, but these past couple of days we've just been talking and really learning how to play together. I feel like I'll be like, Oh, look for yourself, be aggressive, and the next play she'll post up, call for the ball and get an and-one. So [she’s] just so eager to learn. Obviously you can't teach height, so when I'm coming off the ball screen, it's just a really nice target, easy to pass it to her, and she just has such good hands and she's a great finisher around the rim. And then just her ability to play on both sides of the ball. I know if I get beat, I have her to help me. She's just an amazing player, and she's an amazing person and teammate.”
A unique kind of alchemy is brewing in DC. Whether or not this concoction produces wins right away remains to be seen. What we know for sure is that a mystical energy is making this team grow closer and closer and closer.
And, thankfully for us at SLAM, Iriafen closes our interview with gratitude, erasing any of our lingering fear about interrupting the dancing earlier.
“This was so fun,” Iriafen says. “I feel like it's training camp, like, we're all getting ready for the season, but you don't get a moment to just sit down and talk. And basketball is super important, but this is even more important, so this is just really cool to do this.”
With that, Iriafen gives her phone to a Mystics staff member, directs them to stand underneath our pro-grade lighting setup and grabs Betts. The TikTok camera starts to roll and the music starts to boom. And Iriafen and Betts can finally finish that dance.
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