ABOUT KARIMA

When it comes to basketball, Karima Christmas-Kelly still has plenty of bounce in her step. The 6 foot forward signed with the Minnesota Lynx in February after eight seasons with the Dallas Wings, Indiana Fever and Washington Mystics. In 235 career games, the Dobie High School alum holds averages of 8.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 23.3 minutes per game. On May 25, 2017, she scored her 1,500th point against San Antonio.

A 2011 graduate of Duke University, she shot to national fame in college as a scoring dynamo for the Blue Devils. During her junior and senior seasons at Duke, she led her team to back-to-back regular-season and Atlantic Coast Conference tournament titles. She became the 27th player in Duke women’s basketball history to break the 1,000 mark for career points. She was a part of 114 wins in her four seasons at Duke. Christmas-Kelly finished her college career ranked 10th in school history in steals.

Karima was a second-round draft choice by Washington (23rd overall) and played for both the Mystics and Tulsa in 2011. Traded to Indiana midway through the 2012 season, she was part of the Fever’s title team. That same year, the Indiana Fever team would beat the Minnesota Lynx in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals, 87-78, earning her a championship ring.

Karima was the only Dallas Wings player to start in all 34 games. She surpassed a career best with 12.4 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game and 2.1 assists per game and was ranked eighth in the league in minutes, averaging 31.6 minutes per game. She was nominated as the Most Improved Player in 2016. In 2017, Karima played her 200th game and recorded her 5,000th career-minute in July.

In her best season to date, Karima averaged 12.4 points on 40.0 percent shooting, 5.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists, starting all 34 games for the Dallas Wings during the 2016 season. For her career, she has scored 20-plus points 10 times and has seven double-doubles to her credit (four in 2016).

At Dobie, Karima earned 10 varsity letters, including four in track, where she won a district title in the triple jump. Under Head Basketball Coach Doug Gibson, she became a three-time all-district selection and an all-region pick her senior year when Parade Magazine named her a fourthteam All-American. She averaged 18.7 points and 9.6 rebounds her senior season, leading the Longhorns to a 32-7 record.

Karima returned to the South Belt area in 2017 to help provide Hurricane Harvey refugees with shoes and sports gear. Her Dobie basketball jersey was retired by the school in 2017.