INDIANAPOLIS – Kiki Iriafen is the oldest of three siblings, the oldest of her cousins and the first grandchild in her corner of the family. That comes with responsibility.

Over the years, her learned ability to watch out for others became innate and transcended into other areas of her life. She was student council president in middle school and a representative in high school. Once she arrived at Stanford, she began getting involved in the athletic council.

“I was just always interested in that stuff,” Iriafen said. “Like, how can I help? I feel like I have natural leadership qualities. If I saw something was an issue, like in middle school and high school, I wanted to be able to fix it.”

Now a Washington Mystics rookie, Iriafen is part of a growing cohort getting involved in the WNBA’s contentious labor negotiations.

The players association is eyeing a new collective bargaining agreement that will earn it a larger slice of revenue, and a meeting at All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis last month provided a glimpse of that struggle. Forty players attended the meeting, showing their commitment to a better deal after they opted out of the current CBA last year.

Iriafen is quite familiar with Women’s National Basketball Players Association President Nneka Ogwumike; they are both former Stanford players and have parents with Nigerian backgrounds. But hearing the 10-time all-star speak at last month’s meeting was different.

“I was just in awe, and it truly just inspired me to be like, ‘Wow, one day I want to be able to do that,’” said Iriafen, who was also selected as an all-star. “To be able to be one of the best players in the world, dominate every single day on the court, but then to still be able to be so well prepared and being the president of the PA – she knows she knows her stuff.”

There’s a long way to go before the sides agree on a deal. But when that agreement eventually nears its end, these negotiations will be valuable to the next generation – players such as Iriafen. These players might be uniquely prepared, given that they received lessons in the business side of sports as name, image and likeness issues erupted during their collegiate careers.

That young group – which includes Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston – got its first taste of in-person labor negotiations, featuring lawyers, the WNBPA executive committee, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA labor relations committee.

“This is really their CBA, right?” said Chicago Sky center Elizabeth Williams, the WNBPA executive committee secretary. “I think they have that understanding. I also think there’s an engagement with the younger players that’s really important. So they do have the understanding that this is labor. These are labor negotiations. So, yeah, I think they have the understanding that this will affect them and they’re going to have that leadership role moving forward.”

The players in this wave will play a large chunk of their careers under an agreement expected to be unprecedented after the league has seen dramatic growth in attention, ticket sales and viewership. Six expansion teams will take the floor between 2025 and 2030, and the last three paid record fees of $250 million. A $2.2 billion media rights deal is set to begin, too.

Ogwumike is serving her third term as president, and she began to get involved immediately as a rookie in 2012. She was her team representative in her first year, moved to the executive committee two years later and was elected president in 2016. Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally successfully ran for an executive committee position as a rookie in 2020 and is now a CBA co-committee chair alongside Ogwumike.

There is no age limit for players to get involved. Each team elects a primary and an alternate to be on the board of player representatives. That group then elects officers. To be considered as an officer on the executive committee, a player must be nominated, or self-nominate, and submit a written statement.

All but two players on the executive committee are 30 or older. Ogwumike, 35, is nearing the end of her career. Soon, it will be up to the next generation.

“Every labor leader knows that young members bring excitement, fresh energy and keep the union forward-looking,” said Terri Jackson, the WNBPA’s executive director.

Reese, an all-star in her first two seasons with Chicago, said she didn’t understand how important the process was before attending the Indianapolis meeting. She got to see how players in different financial situations are affected by the deal. Not everyone is a first-round pick, and even that hasn’t guaranteed a roster spot as a rookie, let alone a long career.

Reese is in a better position than most, given her long list of endorsements, including her signature shoe with Reebok and her status as one of the cover athletes for the “NBA 2K26” video game. As one of the most visible players in the league, Reese wants to be on the board one day.

“Knowing my platform, knowing my voice, it’s important for me to be in those meetings,” she said. “The WNBA saw who showed up and saw we were there for business, and that was really important for all of us. … I know me continuing to do it for the next generation is really important.”

Sonia Citron, another Mystics all-star rookie, noted the complications when she attended the meeting in Indianapolis. Revenue sharing received the most attention, but there’s minutia in contract structure, the free agency environment, benefits, medical coverage, injury provisions and discipline. The current deal is 342 pages long.

“There’s a lot of nitty-gritty things that you don’t really think about,” Citron said. “… I’m young right now, and it’s a little bit intimidating … but I definitely think that as I get older and get more experience and feel more confident in my voice, it’s something I’ll be interested in.”

Ogwumike knows everyone is watching – internally and externally. Disappointment in the league’s initial proposal, in part, pushed players to take the conversation public. In the weeks leading up to the All-Star Game, players around the league began to discuss negotiating points in larger spheres.

The meeting took place the Thursday before All-Star Weekend. In interviews Friday morning ahead of the skills contest and three-point contest, CBA negotiations dominated the conversation.

Then, before Saturday’s game, players came out wearing T-shirts that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us.” Fans in Gainbridge Fieldhouse chanted “Pay them! Pay them!” as Engelbert presented Napheesa Collier with the MVP trophy. Guard Brittney Sykes maneuvered behind the presentation with a sign that read, “Pay the players.”

“I’m not sure that there’s much else that I can necessarily say rather than what they can experience,” Ogwumike said. “… Being on text chains, reading emails, sure. But if you can get players in the room, they have that frame of reference to now understand, ‘Okay, I want to be involved.’”

This latest generation only knows a world in which the WNBA exists. Every player selected in the 2025 draft was born in the 2000s, years after the league began play in 1997.

Their turn to grow the league and advance the business side for players is on the horizon, and Iriafen certainly took notice in that meeting.

“I think my eyes were just opened,” she said. “Being in that player meeting and seeing all the women in there speak up on what we’re fighting for and what we’re trying to gain from the CBA was super empowering, honestly. I was very motivated and felt very inspired to hopefully one day be able to be in a position of leadership.”