WASHINGTON — Before Alicia Flórez made her WNBA debut with the Washington Mystics on Wednesday, the team had seen her play well for weeks in practice. She’d been so good, in fact, that point guard Georgia Amoore joked with The IX Basketball that Flórez was talking trash during those workouts.
Flórez does talk trash while playing in her home country of Spain, she told The IX Basketball on Friday. But as a WNBA rookie, she’s kept quiet, not wanting to rock the boat.
However, Flórez has rocked the boat on the court almost from the moment she checked into her first game. As a developmental player, she can be active for up to 12 games this season before the Mystics have to decide whether to play on without her or give her a standard contract, which comes with a spot on the full 12-player roster. She has been active for the past two games and is averaging 7.0 points, 5.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds in 24.0 minutes per game.
“Her performance reflects how we want to play here in D.C.,” head coach Sydney Johnson told reporters after a 5-point loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday. “I mean, this is a young woman who plays with incredible intensity, so there’s the toughness there and the fight. … She’s trying to find other players, and she’s talking to them and working well with them. …
“So toughness and togetherness, who could have known that she would bring that so quickly? But it’s been nice to see.”
Flórez just turned 22 in April, yet this is her sixth professional season. The other five have come in Spain, as she rose from the country’s third-highest league in 2021-22 to its top league, Liga Femenina Endesa, last winter. Last season, the 5’9 point guard averaged 11.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game for Ensino Lugo, finishing in the top five leaguewide in the latter two categories.
Flórez also played for the Under-18 through Under-20 Spanish national teams over the years and was a well-regarded WNBA draft prospect. But she went undrafted in 2024, and the Mystics might not have signed her this year if not for assistant coach Emre Vatansever.
“We got a number of coaches on our staff who have some international background, and Emre in particular was in my ear a lot about Alicia,” Johnson said. “So thankfully he kept annoying me and annoying me and annoying me and annoying me.”
Vatansever had known about Flórez for a few years, but he watched her play much more this season for Ensino Lugo. He saw someone who could fill a need for the Mystics with how she plays off the dribble, especially in pick-and-rolls.
“When she has the ball in her hands with the pick-and-roll situations, she is [a] phenomenal reader,” Vatansever told The IX Basketball on Sunday. “So she reads the defense in the first layer, in the second layer, in the third layer, so she can make those passes easily, and it helps us in that way.”
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Flórez found out the Mystics wanted to sign her on May 1, shortly before Ensino Lugo’s season ended in the league quarterfinals.
“It was super crazy,” Flórez said about the past month. “… They called me two days before the last game [asking,] what is my opinion if I want to be here? And … I always say that it’s the opportunity of my life, so I take it, and I’m super happy to be here.”
The Mystics announced that they’d signed Flórez on May 7, the day before their season opener, and she came to the United States for the first time in her life a few days later. She acknowledged that it’s been difficult having to learn a brand-new team and league from the point guard position while the season is already underway. But everyone has helped her along, especially the staff and fellow point guards Amoore and Rori Harmon.
One of the biggest adjustments has been the pace of play. “It’s faster, and you have to have your head,” Flórez said. What she means by that is she has to move on faster from each play, whether it was good or bad, so she doesn’t give up something on the next one.
When Flórez heard that she’d be active for the first time on Wednesday against the Seattle Storm, she was excited to prove herself further to the Mystics.
“The opportunity they give me is incredible,” she said. “So I want to show them that I can play and … that I want to be here [and] I want to help the team to win games. So I’m super grateful.”
She was also nervous at first, especially when she checked in for Amoore about halfway through the first quarter. But 21 seconds into her shift, she got her first assist, to center Shakira Austin. About a minute later, she missed a 3-pointer, but on the next possession, she got a steal.
After that, she wasn’t nervous anymore.
Flórez got on the scoreboard shortly after that, when Amoore found her cutting to the rim for a layup late in the quarter. She remained unafraid to shoot the rest of the night, finishing with 9 points on 4-for-9 shooting, five rebounds, three assists and two steals in nearly 23 minutes.
She capped her scoring in the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer off one leg as the shot clock wound down. That shot put the Mystics up by 25 points and prompted television analyst Christy Winters Scott to compare her to New York Liberty guard Marine Johannès, who has made a career of hitting threes from difficult angles.
“She’s an exciting player. I’ve been just cheesing watching her, like her swag,” Austin told reporters postgame. “And … bringing that on the defensive end, having other players cry and talk to the refs, that’s the energy that we need.”
“I love her. She might be my favorite teammate,” forward Kiki Iriafen told The IX Basketball on Friday. “Sorry, but she’s just so dope. … She’s just a sponge, picking up everything really quickly and doing a great job.”
Two days later, Flórez was active again against the Sparks. Though she struggled with her shot, she finished with 5 points and seven assists in nearly 25 minutes. Defensively, she guarded veterans like Erica Wheeler and Ariel Atkins and seemed to relish the challenge. In the third quarter, she drew two offensive fouls in about 30 seconds, and after one of them, she clenched her fists and yelled in celebration.
Flórez played the fourth-most minutes of any Mystic, including the final 6:57 as the team clawed back from a 9-point deficit to tie the score with two minutes left.
“I think it’s amazing what she’s doing,” guard Sonia Citron told reporters postgame. “Just her ability to pass [and] how she sees the floor is super special.”
Through Saturday, 30 players around the WNBA have been on developmental contracts for some or all of the season. Flórez hasn’t played in as many games as some of them, but she is tied for third in total minutes, is second in total points and leads all developmental players with 10 assists.
Because she’s a developmental player, it’s not certain when she’ll be active next. Being a developmental player doesn’t faze her, though. In Spain, she has been in situations where she’s bounced between the first and second teams, similar to the developmental system in the WNBA, and she knows she’ll learn a lot with the Mystics regardless.
“I really don’t care, because I am here,” she said. “I have the opportunity. They are giving all they have to me. They are teaching me all the things.”
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However, many people who’ve seen Flórez play this week are wondering whether the Mystics will give her a standard contract at some point this season. She has been the team’s backup point guard when she’s been active and played more minutes than Amoore on Friday. After Friday’s game, Johnson declined to answer whether the Mystics staff had discussed giving Flórez a standard contract.
As long as Flórez is a developmental player, other WNBA teams can try to poach her by offering her a standard contract, but the Mystics will have the right to match any offer Flórez may tentatively sign. They will also have to decide whether to give her a standard contract or play on without her if she reaches the 12-game active limit as a developmental player.
For now, Flórez will just keep working to get better, whether that development comes in clutch minutes in the spotlight or solely in workouts behind the scenes. It doesn’t matter to her because it’s all part of seizing her opportunity to be in the WNBA.
“She’s so defensive-minded, physical, aggressive, wanting to do the right things, and offensively, just has that European flair,” wing Michaela Onyenwere told reporters after Wednesday’s game. “… She’s just such a great teammate. She’s trying to learn us, we’re trying to learn her, but we’re doing our best to just welcome her to the team [and] make her feel comfortable.
“And as she continues to get … minutes, you can just see how much of an add she’ll be to our team.”
Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Mystics, holds a minority stake in The IX Basketball. The IX Basketball’s editorial operations are entirely independent of Monumental and all other business partners.
