Benton Harbor’s own Kysre Gondrezick gets drafted fourth overall by Indiana Fever

INDIANAPOLIS (WNDU) - From Benton Harbor to the WNBA. Dreams were made Thursday night in the WNBA Draft, and a childhood dream was fulfilled by Benton Harbor’s own Kysre Gondrezick after being selected by the Indiana Fever with the fourth overall pick.

ESPN’s 2021 WNBA Mock Draft had Gondrezick slated as a third-round pick.

However, Indiana Fever general manager Tamika Catchings had so much conviction on Gondrezick’s championship mentality, she had to draft the West Virginia star with the organization’s first draft pick.

Gondrezick is fired up and feeling the Fever. She had a feeling she could be going to Indiana today. Her gut was right.

She’s especially excited that she is only a three-hour drive away from her home town of Benton Harbor. Gondrezick graduated from Benton Harbor in 2016 and also won Michigan’s Miss Basketball in the same year.

Gondrezick says the Fever definitely made the right choice selecting her fourth overall.

“The fact that Indiana took a chance on me is going to make me go even harder,” Gondrezick said. “I told them when I FaceTime them, ‘I’m about to run through a wall for you guys.’ I was getting ready to take off my heels and throw them in that very moment. For me, you just don’t know what it means. I’ve been through a lot of adversity where people counted on me. I am just going to go in this with a relentlessness every day with my team to make sure that anyone else who passed up on me or didn’t give me the opportunity, they regretted it. Indiana is going to be the one who said, ‘Yeah we did it. We got her.’”

Do you know who wasn’t surprised Kysre would be selected this high? Her father, Grant, who unexpectedly passed away in January.

During their summer workouts, Grant would motivate her by saying she’s going to be a Top 5 Draft Pick.

He was right, and now he’s smiling down at Kysre. Those workouts paid off.

Of course one of Kysre’s biggest role models growing up in Michiana was former South Bend Washington, Notre Dame and WNBA Star Skylar Diggins-Smith.

Skylar attended one of Kysre’s games when she was playing at Benton Harbor in 2016.

Thursday night, Skylar tweeted, “Yeah Ky.”

She also tweeted Kysre was her favorite player in the Draft.

That means a lot coming from Skylar, one of Kysre’s Idols.

Skylar Diggins-Smith is not the only person excited to see Kysre Gondrezick on the Fever - so is Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. He also tweeted his excitement.

Holcomb called Gondrezick as soon as she was drafted and said the gym is open and he will rebound her. Gondrezick promised he wouldn’t have to do too much running for her in practice.

Gondrezick was certainly excited. She says she was flying to Indianapolis Thursday evening.

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