Former WNBA participant Kysre Gondrezick is heating issues up and making historical past.
On Monday, Nov. 10, Playboy, which formally relaunched this yr since pausing its publishing operations in 2020, unveiled its 2025 Playmate lineup, naming the 28-year-old skilled basketball participant as its June cowl star — and the first-ever Black skilled athlete to earn the title.
“Playboy’s 2025 Miss June,” Gondrezick wrote within the caption of a put up on Instagram sharing a carousel of sultry, Seventies-inspired photographs from her shoot.
Bathed in hazy, retro glamour, the unfold captures the previous Chicago Sky level guard in tiny bra and panty units—one leopard, the opposite a nudey brown shade—her hair falling in large, fluffy ‘70s waves. In others, she switches to a smooth, coily model, posing round a mid-century trendy styled house and inside a classic automotive. One photograph reveals her studying together with her derriere cheekily uncovered, as one other zooms in on her lengthy legs draped throughout the entrance seat as she cradles a basketball — a recurring prop all through the shoot.
“Proud to be the primary Black skilled athlete in historical past to ever grace Playboy journal and this yr’s centerfold,” she added in her caption.
This yr’s Playmates shall be featured in each the upcoming Winter 2025–26 problem and the 2026 Playboy Calendar. Gondrezick is one in all three Black girls to make this yr’s lineup, alongside fashions Mykeesha Nelson and Louisa Ama. The milestone arrives as girls’s sports activities proceed to soar in visibility and cultural cachet, notably the WNBA, the place a number of gamers have turned their on-court acclaim into full-fledged way of life and vogue manufacturers.
Of their put up introducing Gondrezick, Playboy highlighted what her inclusion represents, sharing excerpts from a current dialog about her evolution from full-time WNBA participant to free agent.
“What folks label as a transition, I embody as evolution. I’m not stepping outdoors who I’m. I’m constructing a multidimensional model,” she stated.
“Changing into a WNBA participant and attending to that stage, you place in numerous work to get there,” she continued. “You must put in much more work to remain there.”
