Jacqueline Ann Gemelos ( Greek: Τζάκι Γέμελου; born November 22, 1988) is an American-Greek former professional basketball player and coach.

Early life and college career

Born and raised in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

, Jacqueline Ann Gemelos graduated from St. Mary's High School in 2006. Gemelos was widely regarded as the most recruited player in her high school class, but she suffered five knee injuries during her high school and college career. At

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, Gemelos missed the 2006–07 through 2008–09 seasons due to injuries, before making her collegiate debut on February 4, 2010, at

Cal Cal or CAL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty * "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov * ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...

and had eight points, five rebounds, and five assists. She ended the 2009–10 season averaging 7.6 points and 3.6 rebounds. Gemelos completed her bachelor's degree in sociology at USC in 2010 and master's degree in

gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". The fie ...

in 2012. She played all 37 games (28 starts) of the 2010–11 season and averaged 12.4 points and 4.6 rebounds. In the 2011–12 season, Gemelos started the first nine games before a season-ending injury on December 18, 2011. That season, she averaged 11.0 points and 7.3 rebounds.

Southern California statistics

Source

Professional career

WNBA

In the 2012 WNBA draft, the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Founded pr ...

drafted Gemelos in the third round. Gemelos was signed to the team in April 2013 but was released prior to the regular season. In 2015, Gemelos made her WNBA debut with the Chicago Sky. In 17 games with Chicago, Gemelos averaged 1.1 points, 0.5 rebounds, and 0.4 assists. On April 11, 2018, Gemelos signed a contract to return to the United States to play in the WNBA with the Las Vegas Aces, but was eventually cut from the final roster. On June 25, 2020, Gemelos signed a contract to play in the WNBA with the Connecticut Sun. Despite enduring five ACL tears and eight knee surgeries over the last 15 years of her career, Gemelos finally debuted for the Sun on July 28, 2020; five years after her first stint with the Sky. She scored 6 points and 1 rebound in the game.

Euroleague

Gemelos debuted professionally with

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

of the Greek Women's Basketball League in the 2013–14 season. She averaged 17.6 points and 6.2 rebounds in 15 games. In 2014–15, Gemelos played for

PF Umbertide Pallacanestro Femminile Umbertide, better known as PF Umbertide, is an Italian women's basketball team from the town of Umbertide Umbertide () is a town and ''comune'' (township) of Italy, in the province of Perugia and in northwestern Umbria, at ...

of the Italian Serie A1, averaging 14.2 points and 5.8 rebounds. She returned to Europe for the 2015–16 season with

Perfumerias Avenida Perfumerías Avenida Baloncesto formerly C.B. Halcón Viajes, is a women's professional basketball team based in Salamanca, Spain. The team currently plays in the Liga Femenina de Baloncesto. In 2011 Perfumerías Avenida won the Euroleague, an ...

of the Spanish Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, who went 25–1 for the season. In 25 games, Gemelos averaged 10.2 points and 4.8 rebounds. On May 23, 2016, Gemelos again signed with a Serie A1 team in Italy, Saces Mapei Napoli.

USA Basketball

Gemelos played on the team presenting the US at the 2011 World University Games held in

Shenzhen, China Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major Sub-provincial division, sub-provincial city and one of the Special economic zones of China, special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pea ...

. The team won all six games to earn the gold medal. Gemelos was tied for third for assists on the team, with 11 over the course of the tournament. Gemelos averaged 4.8 points per game.

Greek National team

On 28 January 2018 Gemelos was selected to the

Greece women's national basketball team The Greece women's national basketball team is the representative for Greece in international women's basketball competitions and is organized and run by the Greek Basketball Federation The Hellenic Basketball Federation ( el, Ελληνική � ...

Personal life

Her father Steve Gemelos, of Greek descent, played college basketball at Weber State and San Joaquin Delta, followed by two years of professional basketball in Greece. In 2012, Jacki Gemelos became a dual citizen of the US and Greece. Gemelos owns a line of apparel called "Overcome."The (New London) Day
Gemelos has overcome a lot to get to Sun
July 16, 2020.

References

External links

WNBA player page

Overcome, apparel line owned by Gemelos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gemelos, Jacki 1988 births Living people Greek women's basketball players American women's basketball players American people of Greek descent American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Spain Basketball players from Stockton, California Chicago Sky players Connecticut Sun players LGBT basketball players Minnesota Lynx draft picks New York Liberty coaches Olympiacos Women's Basketball players Panathinaikos WBC players Point guards Universiade gold medalists for the United States Universiade medalists in basketball USC Trojans women's basketball players Washington Mystics players United States women's national basketball team players