Kysre Gondrezick grew up in Benton Harbour, Michigan, in a basketball family that helped shape the guard she became, and she said the moment the Indiana Fever took her with the fourth overall pick in the 2021 WNBA Draft felt like she could finally breathe.

After the selection in April 2021, Gondrezick told the Fever’s Pat Boylan that hard work pays off. She said that after playing catch for a long time, it was “kind of like proof” that she had finally caught up and it was time to take off. When her name appeared on the screen, she said she felt relief that the hardships she had faced along the way were worth it.

That draft moment carried the weight of years. Gondrezick had played college football for West Virginia University and later the University of Michigan, and she entered the league as the product of a family that had already sent several members into the sport. Her father, Grant Gondrezick, played for Pepperdine University and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in 1986. Her mother, Lisa Harvey, played for Louisiana Tech University and helped her team reach a national championship. Her older sister also played basketball for Michigan State University.

Gondrezick has said basketball runs in her blood, and she has described growing up around the game as a reason she plays with freedom and understands it from both ends. “Coming from a basketball heritage…basketball runs in my blood. I think it comes very natural and instinctive to me, and my IQ is something that people are enamoured with, so being around the game at a young age allows me to be free when I’m playing and fully understand the game from both ends,” she said.

The family story also includes loss. Gondrezick said her father died during her final collegiate season. She recalled that the day after her last season, he told her she would have to get in shape, have an All-American season and become a top five draft pick. She said he spoke everything into existence and was confident she could make the WNBA.

The Fever’s decision gave her that chance, but the first stop in the league did not last. Gondrezick joined the Chicago Sky’s training camp in January 2022 after being waived by the Fever, then did not make the final roster for opening night. She returned to the Sky camp again in February 2024, another sign that her career has been shaped as much by persistence as by pedigree.

For Gondrezick, the story today is not just about where she came from. It is that the promise her father saw, and the poise she felt at the draft, still define the way her career is being rebuilt one camp at a time.