Am I overreacting to a season and one game? Potentially. Am I also doing this because she’s my favorite young player in the league? Certainly. Does that make what I’m about to say any less true? Hell no.
She doesn’t have the name brand or stature of Angel Reese, she doesn’t have the nationwide appeal of Paige Bueckers, and she isn’t as brash or loud (or loved by the media) as Caitlin Clark, but when you’re talking about this youth movement that’s taking over the WNBA I think that you have to mention Sonia Citron amongst those Titans of Industry.
After a four year career at Notre Dame with averages of 14/5/2.5 and 2.4 stocks per game (not to mention 46/37/84 shooting splits) Citron still wasn’t at the top of the ticket in her own draft class. To some extent I think that’s valid because Paige Bueckers had quite the storybook ending to her college career – winning a National Championship after overcoming so much adversity during her time in Storrs. Bueckers has also had this cult like following for many years so I think it would be difficult to top that. The rest is where I start to question what everyone else was seeing.
Now this is NOT a shot at ANYONE I’m about to mention because I think that they’re all very talented and are going to have very successful careers, but we do have to draw a line somewhere. On my Big Board at the time I had Citron as the second best player in this draft, and I did assume that after being a few years removed from Sue Bird retiring, the Seattle Storm would be looking to find that next Face of the Franchise. Citron had all of the makings of a great guard in this league so it only seemed natural. The Seattle Storm had other ideas, however.
Again, I think that Dominique Malonga is incredible and she has Defensive Player of the Year written all over her one day. I mean for the Basketball God’s sake she was called the “Wemby of the WNBA” and they don’t just go handing out those monikers for no reason. International prospects have been a mixed bag in the history of the WNBA, however, and after winning four Championships with Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, and company, I personally would have went with the more known quantity in the Notre Dame prospect that can do absolutely everything on the floor to continue that winning legacy. C’est la vie.
Sonia wasn’t far behind in the draft process as she was selected 3rd overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft to the Washington Mystics whose pick originally belonged to Chicago (sorry, Sky Fam). Even at that point, though, it never really felt like she was the talk of the town. One pick later the Mystics selected Kiki Iriafen out of USC, and two picks after that the Mystics (who is this lady, Sam Presti???) selected Georgia Amoore who had her own cult like following. Even though she was picked 3rd overall she was roughly the 7th most talked about name in the draft behind other players like Hailey Van Lith and someone who wasn’t even drafted that night in Catlin Clark, which is criminally insane to me.
You won’t ever hear a peep about it from Sonia, though. That’s not who she is. If I can make a comparison to a NBA counterpart, she’s the W’s version of Kawhi Leonard. She’s not quite this world renowned defender (yet) but their demeanors are identical. She’s not immune to being frustrated or getting excited, but this is all you’re really going to get. This is the PEAK of expression from Citron:
Was that too much emotion for you? Well hold on to your butts when you check out this heated exchange between her and a referee:
There’s this expression that goes something like this: If you think you’re great, you’ll tell people about it. But if other people know you’re great, they’ll tell you. Which is exactly why she’ll never tell you how great and underrated she is, and why I’m writing this 1400 word article on Sonia Citron. I think that the dedicated WNBA fandom knows the caliber of player that Citron is but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a WNBA casual (you know the kind I’m talking about) that even knows who she is. Even if you did find a casual who was aware I doubt that they’d be able to tell you the impact that she has on the game.
After a fantastic Rookie campaign where she averaged 15/4/2.5 with 47/44(!!)/87 shooting splits, earned an All-Star selection, and finished 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting, the whole league and it’s fans should have been on notice. The WNBA media machine has too many darlings that it has to cover to detriment of other deserving players though, so there has been little to no national coverage on the burgeoning superstar and the impending dynasty in Washington. I could write another 1000 words on how and why Citron could be a top 5 player in the league on day, but I think I’ll let the game tape do the talking for me.
A three level scorer, great on the ball creator, great off the ball finisher, a very solid defender, efficient, takes care of the ball, doesn’t get in foul trouble, cool, calm, collected, and a partridge in a pear tree. Sonia Citron has proven in just 45 games that she is the real deal and she isn’t slowing down any time soon. I expect big things from the Mystics this year and even bigger things for them in the future.
The young trio they have of Citron/Iriafen/Amoore has meshed together seamlessly so far, more veteran player like Shakira Austin are getting better and better with each passing game, and then of course we HAVE to talk about the elephant in this room: the Chicago Sky draft picks.
The Mystics own the swap rights to the Sky’s 2027 FRP (potentially the Juju Watkins draft) and an unprotected 2028 Sky pick (the Sarah Strong draft) so there is a nonzero percent chance that we’re talking about a 2028 team that features a starting 5 of Georgia Amoore, Sonia Citron, Juju Watkins, Sarah Strong, and Kiki Iriafen. If that doesn’t scream “dynasty” I don’t know what will. Is that super likely to happen? No, but even if it doesn’t the draftees that they do land to supplement the superstar ascension that Citron will have very soon will be enough to put them back in championship contention.
Will they be a force of nature this year? Highly unlikely. The majority of their team is either first year players or rookies and I just don’t know if they’ll be ready to take that leap. I think that they’ll more than likely be very close to a playoff spot this year, though. I do think that this team is young enough and hungry enough to fight through the regular season, make the playoffs, fight valiantly, but then eventually lose out to the Aces, Liberty, or some other juggernaut. Their time will come, but I don’t think it’s this year. What I do know is that the league better brace for impact and what Citron is going to turn into, and by extension, what she’ll be able to do with this Mystics team. There’s a certain “face of the league” that I won’t mention here, but she is exactly what those “fans” think their hero is. Sonia Citron is a sleeping giant of a superstar, and if you don’t jump on the bandwagon now, you’ll be left in the dust.
I’m certainly excited for this WNBA season. I’ve always been a dedicated fan but I haven’t done a great job of expressing that. As someone who loves this game in all aspects I have failed in that area of my love and recognition, and as someone who wants this league to grow I’ve decided to change that. I’ve recently done season previews of all 15 teams on my YouTube channel, and I’ll be yapping about the league all season long on my Twitter so please go follow me on all the platforms.
What are your expectations for the season? Let me know in the comments!
Be kind. Tell somebody that you love them.
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