30 SHTHE LAST T

There was a time when JACKI GEMELOS was thought to be the first high school player who could potentially go straight to the WNBA. But after enduring five devastating ACL reconstructions in the last six years, Jacki Gemelos improbably still has one last shot of making her WNBA dreams come true. WORDS. MIRIN FADER PHOTOS. KIRBY LEE

Jacki Gemelos sat in her apartment by didn’t do: bypass college altogether and camp this April, her last shot at the profes- herself, hands clasped on her lap in front become a first-round pick in the WNBA. sional career she’d dreamed about since she of the T.V., hearing the faint clack of her Now, more than five years later, she just was seven. shoe nervously tapping the ground as she prayed to be one of the 36 names called. “I sometimes think of not playing bas- watched the first and second rounds of the After playing just one full season for the ketball,” she says, stopping a moment, as if 2012 WNBA Draft go by last April. Trojans in 2010-11, she averaged 12.4 points taking in the fact that she’s almost 24 and Selected were women who as girls Jacki and 4.6 rebounds a game and received All- no longer seven and wide-eyed. “It just gives remembered lighting up in high school Pac-10 Honorable Mention, leading the me a nervous feeling in my stomach. It’s games. Some were the recipients of her conference in 3-point percentage with 42.4 something I can’t do yet. There’s just some- spectacular no-look passes and some percent. Nice numbers, but hardly where thing that’s holding on to still play.” could never catch them. Others were part Jacki and everyone else had always as- of triple teams that Jacki effortlessly split. sumed she’d be. Over twenty names were called of women And with the 31st pick in the 2012 WNBA Draft, who were ranked behind Jacki at St. Mary’s the select…Jacki Gemelos, USC. rowing up in Stockton, Jacki (Stockton) High School, where her flare pass- There were no streamers, no hugs from attended almost every Sac- ing the ball in transition triggered compari- family standing around a big table for ESPN ramento Monarchs game sons to “Pistol” Pete Maravich. cameras to record, no league president’s G with her dad, Steve Geme- The third round approached. Over a hand to shake, and certainly no jersey to los, who first put the ball in decade of her life hinged upon the league hold up before a podium. There was just her hands after having played profession- president’s words and yet one night night- silence—loud enough to contain six years ally in Greece. marishly kept coming back to her: Decem- of struggle, surgeries and setbacks—and one Summers weren’t summers without bas- ber 18, 2011, when she tore her ACL for long exhale of joy. ketball. Running around from AAU tourna- the fifth time in six years as a second-year “The second my name came up on the ment to practice to league games with her graduate student at USC in a game against screen I called my parents and everyone dad and mother, Linda, Jacki had tunnel Texas A&M. was crying,” Gemelos says. “I may not have vision: she was among the first generation The draft—her moment—played out been a first-round draft pick like I always of girl players to grow up with a much differently in her head when she thought I would be before all of this hap- professional league already in place, and was was younger. pened, but I got there. determined to make her mark on it someday. At fifteen years old, the dominant 6-foot “It was all worth it.” After the reign of Cheryl Miller (River- point guard became the youngest girl ever Will it be? side), Cynthia Cooper (South Central), and to commit to UConn. In 2006, the McDon- Being a third-rounder is as unstable as Lisa Leslie (Inglewood), Southern Califor- ald’s All-American averaged 39.2 points, 8.9 the fragmented ligaments in Jacki’s knees, nia became even more of a hotbed for girl’s assists, and 6.5 rebounds a game. Jacki once especially in a league where rosters max basketball when Diana Taurasi (Chino) took scored 52 points in a high school game, able at 11 players and teams struggle to garner over for the next generation. Next in line, to get her shot whenever she wanted. She long-term profits. Jacki would be the most heralded player was dominant. Some professional scouts The Lynx hold Jacki’s rights, but she must from NorCal. She never thought about a even thought Jacki could do what girl’s compete for a spot on the team in training plan B, especially since it seemed she was

31 going to follow in Taurasi’s footsteps as the way a coach tries to figure out why his wherever she goes. next UCONN phenom. team lost by one point on a last-second But it’s not. Not to her, at least. “My parents always told me, ‘Make shot. What if she would have gone to Storrs, “Everybody has a dream, and mine hap- sure you have a plan B, you never know Connecticut, sticking to her original com- pens to play in the WNBA,” says Jacki. “Ev- what could happen,’” Jacki says. “But I just mitment to Coach Geno Auriemma, after eryone’s entitled to their own opinions, but brushed them off. I never thought anything backing out to be closer to home? I’m doing this for myself. I have to do this.” bad was going to happen.” “Who knows how another program would So what if she doesn’t make the Lynx Until it did. In a playoff game during her have reacted to all of this?” she says. “That roster come training camp? senior season, Jacki tore the ACL in her right thought in my head, if I went to UCONN, “To be honest it scares the hell out of knee for the first time. This was the first would I still have done it two, three, four or me,” says Steve. “It’ll be devastating for all of injury of her entire career. even five times? Of course that’s in my mind. us. We want it for her, not for us. I have lived “But the fact is, I didn’t go there, and I vicariously through her as an ex-player but did go to USC, and I truly feel it’s the best at this point, we just want her to be happy. decision I ever made in my life.” “I don’t have the courage or perserver- s one of the most highly- The type of loyalty she received at USC is ance or inner-strength that she does,” Steve touted recruits for the Wom- impressive. At that level of athletics, you can continues. “It’s just mind-boggling. Just for en of Troy, Jacki redshirted argue that athletes are bodies first, people/ her to go through those surgeries and re- A her freshman year in 2006- students second. And yet her scholarship habs, and after all of that hard work and 07 to rehabilitate fully. was never revoked, her surgeries never pain and suffering, it just blows me away Yet in offseason workouts, she tore the rushed, her relationships never strained. that she’s still playing.” same ACL, sidelining her again for another USC supported not one degree, but two. Af- Along the way, Jacki has had to accept year (2007-08). ter receiving her bachelor’s in sociology, she that she may not get off the ground like she The hits kept coming. Just before the pursued a master’s in gerontology for the used to, or turn the corner as quickly or as start of the 2008-09 season, she tore the ACL next two years while continuing to play ball. swiftly as she used to, but the ball still feels in her left knee for the first time, missing As a first-year graduate student, Jacki a part of her hand, the net still welcomes her junior year. After completing rehab for played her first full season in 2010-11, es- her shot. the third time, and ready to begin her senior tablishing herself as a leader on the team. “I’m used to people saying, ‘She was so year (2009-10), the training staff discovered USC compiled the most wins since 1994, good’ or ‘She could have been this or that,’” that during rehab on her left knee, her body going to the 2011 WNIT Finals. That sum- says Jacki. “This is my game now. I may not had rejected the graft used to repair the mer Jacki even made the 2011 Team USA be the player I used to be, but that’s what I’m tear, leading to yet another reconstruction, World University Games team, winning a learning to live with, to accept the new me.” her fourth. gold medal alongside premier players like It has taken her between eight and 12 Jacki fought her way back and eventu- Skylar Diggins and Elena Delle Donne. She months to heal from her previous ACL in- ally made her college debut at Cal on Feb. was even named to the Naismith Award juries. Currently working out at USC with 4, 2010, scoring eight points with five re- Early-Season Watch List. long-time trainer John Meyer, as of press bounds and five assists, but played just 11 Moving, flowing and even sprinting— time, Jacki has been cleared to begin again games that season. playing rather than thinking. Jacki entered at full speed. A Division I athlete is only as good as back into her space on the court and never While rehabbing last summer, the Lynx their body is healthy. To play at that level, wanted to leave. reached the 2012 WNBA Finals for the sec- the body is put under the most grueling Until it was all taken away again quicker ond consecutive year before losing to the duress of conditioning, weight training, than it came. Indiana Fever 3-1 for the title. healthy eating and competition. And to With more women playing basketball someone who spent years conditioning her than ever before, why would one of the body to perform at the highest level, Jacki WNBA’s most competitive franchises take thought her body had failed her. he knew. As soon as Jacki hit a chance on one of the most vulnerable Nothing she could do could make her the floor in December of her players in the 2012 Draft class? knees feel like they did when she was a child, final year of graduate school, “Jacki’s one heck of a basketball player,” running around the court, laughing, jumping S a look to the training staff said says Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. “That’s and never stopping. They became either too it all: they all knew. That pop. always first and foremost why you draft some- stiff or too loose. A mix of jelly and concrete. That pain. This had to be the end. one. And second, given all that she’s been Never right, and never going to be again. The possibility of cracking a WNBA roster through, having an opportunity to at least According to a 2010 study by Dr. Timo- faded from the consciousness of the people try to have a professional career, we thought thy E. Hewett in the November issue of the closest to her after she ran out of NCAA it was important to give her that opportunity. American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons eligibility. Her parents wanted her to walk “She certainly has shown a lot of (AAOS) Now, female athletes involved in away from the game for good. perserverance. We think she would still pivoting or jumping sports (such as basket- “Her Mom [Linda] and I assumed that it have the opportunity at her size and skillset ball) are 2-to-10 times more susceptible to was finally over,” says Steve Gemelos. “We to see what she can do.” ACL injuries than their male counterparts. felt pretty strongly that she should move After finishing the regular season 27-7 Hewett cited biomechanic and neuromus- on, and get into coaching or something like for the league’s best record, the Lynx are cular factors to be among the causes. that; anything besides playing.” determined to reclaim the championship. She watched her basketball career slip Jacki didn’t want to be one of those—a “I’d say it’s a very bad taste in our away. could have been, a should have been. If she mouth,” says Reeve. “I’d be very surprised “There were doubts,” she says. “Not so didn’t try one last time, she’d wonder “what if we weren’t really hungry to try to get that much after the first or second injury. But the if” for the rest of her life. Steve and Linda championship back in Minny. I’ve got win- third, fourth, or fifth time, I said to myself, had no choice but to support her. ners on this team. Every time we’ve fallen ‘I don’t know if I’m capable of doing this Many call her crazy. Even stupid, saying short we’ve always been a group that comes anymore.’” she’ll be lucky to be walking at 40. “Don’t back together and tries to do better.” She started to retrace her choices the you know it’s just a game?” follows her Sounds like Jacki will fit right in.

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