Seattle Storm's Nika Muhl made her WNBA debut Wednesday night against the Indiana Fever and chose a memorable outfit to mark the occasion.
Muhl, selected at No. 14 in this year's WNBA draft, missed the Storm's first four games of the regular season due to the process of converting her student visa to a P1A work visa.
The former UConn Huskies guard celebrated her approval by wearing a shirt with a mock picture of her now-approved visa card.
Muhl's final collegiate game came against Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. The two faced off again Wednesday in their first matchup as professionals. Seattle narrowly escaped with a 85-83 victory as Clark scored 21 points and Muhl played just three minutes in her debut.
At a press conference on Friday, Muhl explained the inspiration behind her viral outfit.
Muhl expressed that the pregame outfits are new to her, but she enjoys fashion, which her mother got her into. She revealed that her father, who is a graphic designer, made a photo of her visa and sent it to her while she was in Vancouver.
Muhl wanted to do something special for her debut, prompting the idea of putting it on a shirt. They printed the shirt and Muhl's mother helped the Storm guard style the rest of the outfit.
"To print the shirt was faster than to get my visa. It was in one day ..." Muhl joked. "It was just something to get my mind off of [the situation] and focus on something else a little bit. I mean, [it] blew up, didn't expect it, but, yeah, it was pretty cool."
Seattle plays the Washington Mystics on Saturday.
