Seattle Storm guard Nika Muhl revealed that Wednesday's viral outfit was just the beginning for the second-generation fashionista.
The Croatian international played her first game with the Storm this week after a month-long wait for a professional visa, arriving at the game wearing a custom shirt that featured the document with an 'approved' stamp.
"I did not think that was going to blow up the way it did." Muhl said about her outfit. "I like fashion, I've always been into it. My mom got me into it. The pregame fits are new to me, I always loved the idea of it. Now that I have this opportunity, I just like being myself in that kind of way."
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Hailing from Zagreb, Muhl's first stop on her American basketball journey was in Storrs to join Geno Auriemma and the iconic UConn women's basketball program. Her three-star pedigree, per the ESPN HoopGurlz rankings, falls well short of the Huskies' typical blue-chip recruit, but Muhl proved herself immediately with 15 starts her freshman season as UConn returned back to the Final Four.
Muhl ultimately forged an irreplaceable UConn legacy as a player, becoming the program's all-time assist leader, and a person, sharing an emotional goodbye with Auriemma before beginning her professional career in Cascadia. The lone regrettable aspect of her time in Connecticut was the pregame outfits, Muhl revealed, which like most college programs were team-issued track suits. "At UConn we don't do that stuff," Muhl said. "It would always be a travel suit, which I hated."
Her fashion-forward mindset was evidently forged by an artistic upbringing, as Muhl notes her mother sparked the rookie's passion for the subject. Muhl's father, fittingly, was a graphic designer and the mastermind behind his daughter's emphatic T-shirt statement.
"He [Muhl's father] actually made [the shirt]," Muhl said. "I had this idea of like, 'I want to do something cool for my first game, for my debut.' And he actually made it for me and sent it to me while I was in Vancouver, and I was like, 'I got to put this on a shirt.' To print the shirt was faster than to get my visa, it was in one day, and my mom helped me style the whole thing."
Muhl ultimately returned to her much-maligned warmup outfit, spending the first half of Friday's game on the bench. She would ultimately enter in the third quarter for an eventful three-minute cameo, grabbing a rebound on each end of the floor but missing her only three and losing Caitlin Clark to allow a step-back three.
The Storm ultimately pulled out a thrilling 85-83 victory over the Indiana Fever , depriving Clark of her first WNBA victory. Seattle returns back to action Saturday night, hosting Aaliyah Boston and the also-winless Washington Mystics at 9 p.m. A loaded Saturday of WNBA basketball also includes Angel Reese and the Sky hosted undefeated Connecticut and defending finalists New York traveling to face Minnesota and blossoming MVP candidate Naphessa Collier.
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