{"id":834821,"date":"2026-09-03T04:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/834821\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T04:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:18:10","slug":"indiana-fever-coach-announces-joyful-family-news-during-wnba-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/834821\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Fever coach announces joyful family news during WNBA break"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/wnba\/indiana-fever\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Indiana Fever<\/a> received a joyful update from assistant coach Karima Christmas-Kelly during the WNBA\u2019s FIBA World Cup break. Christmas-Kelly announced the birth of her baby Wednesday, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rimac13\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sharing a photograph on Instagram<\/a> in which she held the newborn while wearing a Fever sweatshirt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKali \ud83d\udc9c Kelly Party of 4,\u201d Christmas-Kelly <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rimac13\/?hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She has been away from the Fever on maternity leave. Her husband, fellow Indiana assistant coach Austin Kelly, has remained with the team and will have an important role during the extended break. The announcement adds a happy personal chapter to Christmas-Kelly\u2019s long relationship with the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>Karima Christmas-Kelly has deep ties to Indiana Fever<\/p>\n<p>Christmas-Kelly spent 10 seasons in the WNBA after being selected in the second round of the 2011 draft. She played for Indiana from 2012 through 2014 and was part of the franchise\u2019s first WNBA championship team in 2012. Christmas-Kelly later played for the Tulsa Shock, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/wnba\/dallas-wings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Wings<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/wnba\/minnesota-lynx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Lynx<\/a> before beginning her coaching career.<\/p>\n<p>She returned to Indiana as an assistant coach in 2023 and remained on the staff after Stephanie White became head coach.<\/p>\n<p>The Fever are operating with a different coaching structure during the league\u2019s World Cup break. White is in Berlin as an assistant coach for Team USA, working with Indiana stars Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston. Christmas-Kelly remains away on maternity leave, leaving Austin Kelly and Briann January to oversee workouts and preparations in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/wnba\/news\/lost-passport-delivers-crushing-world-cup-blow-china-faces-team-usa\/e9fa246fb1340f370e069ef7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lost passport delivers crushing World Cup blow before China faces Team USA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Indiana has plenty to accomplish before returning to action. The Fever entered the break firmly in the playoff race after receiving outstanding play from Clark and Kelsey Mitchell. Mitchell averaged 28.9 points in August and was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month, while Clark averaged 24.4 points and 9.4 assists during the same stretch.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA schedule resumes in the second half of September, giving the remaining Fever players an opportunity to recover physically and work on details before the final playoff push.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas-Kelly\u2019s eventual return will restore another important voice to White\u2019s staff. For now, however, basketball can wait.<\/p>\n<p>Her Fever family is preparing for the postseason. The Kelly family just welcomed its newest member.<\/p>\n<p>More WNBA news:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                            <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana Fever received a joyful update from assistant coach Karima Christmas-Kelly during the WNBA\u2019s FIBA World Cup&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-834821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}