Jacqueline Ann Gemelos (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Τζάκι Γέμελου; born November 22, 1988) is an American-Greek former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player and coach.

Early life and college career

Born and raised in Stockton, California, 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, Gemelos missed the 2006–07 through 2008–09 seasons due to injuries, before making her collegiate debut on February 4, 2010, at Cal 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 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 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 The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2 ...

. 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 The Las Vegas Aces are an American professional basketball team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Aces compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team play ...

, 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 The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was established as the Orlando Miracle in ...

. 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 The Greek women's Basketball League, also known as A1 Ethniki (A1 National) Women's Basketball is the most important competition of Greek women's professional basketball. It is organised by the EOK (Hellenic Basketball Federation). It began with th ...

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 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 of the Spanish

Liga Femenina de Baloncesto The Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, also known as Liga Femenina Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of league competition for women's basketball in Spain. It is the women's equivalent of the men's Liga ACB and is run by the Spanish Ba ...

, 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. 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 Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketba ...

Personal life

Her father Steve Gemelos, of Greek descent, played college basketball at

Weber State Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

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