Jacki Gemelos fought to be in the WNBA for a decade. Now she’ll fight for the players in a new job
Jan 3, 2022 10:32:31 GMT -5
Post by WBBDaily on Jan 3, 2022 10:32:31 GMT -5
For years, her friends and family had pleaded with her to consider retirement. It hit her hardest when, after her third ACL tear, her dad told her maybe she should look into another career, to find something that wasn’t as hard on her body. But in the offseason following the WNBA bubble season — her second season in the league, and eight seasons after being drafted out of USC — it became clear to her that playing was no longer an option, the recovery wasn’t getting her to a place where she could give her game what it required.
At the same time, an opportunity became available to move a few feet over on the sideline and become an assistant coach for the New York Liberty.
“It was like all kind of just a dream, and it just happened so fast,” Gemelos said of becoming an assistant. “It was just like, wow, I’m going to still be in the WNBA circle, which was what I was so scared to be out of. Just so scared to be away from the game. And then it was, boom, here’s your next job.”
In the first few days in her coaching capacity in New York, Gemelos made an important realization: Her fight for the game as a player hadn’t left her. Now, it had just morphed into fighting for the players and their futures.
When the Liberty had to make training camp cuts, and she had to be a part of the staff that told players their dream with the Liberty was done, it hit close to home. She cared about the future of the Liberty’s roster, but she also cared for the players who weren’t on it. And when Liberty players were in practice, Gemelos cared about their growth and improvement, but she also cared about making sure they found offseason opportunities both in the basketball world and any other world they hoped to explore.
When the Liberty’s season ended, Gemelos’ former agent Allison Galer approached her about taking another career step, one that would lean heavily on that realization she made as a coach. Galer asked Gemelos to join her in the agency world as Disrupt The Game’s director of client services and marketing. In that position, Gemelos would do everything from recruiting clients to finding players brand opportunities to acting as a sounding board for players adjusting to a new league, new team or new country.
The job — which she accepted on Dec. 14 — made perfect sense to Gemelos, allowing her to lean into holistically supporting WNBA players while working toward getting her agent license. It was a role in which she could take every experience she had as player and pair that with her experience from the coaching side of the game to help players who used to be her teammates.
“It was perfect in the sense that it’s serving players and that’s what I found myself doing the most as a coach — doing things for them in their best interest because I cared and I wanted them to be happy and I wanted them to be treated well,” Gemelos said. “It’s just fitting.”
For Galer, Disrupt The Game’s founder, the move made a lot of sense, too; having someone on board who not only played in the WNBA and abroad, but also worked on the coaching side of the league as well, separates the agency from others as they look to further their expansion. Galer said that Gemelos’ ability to empathize with players in a unique way will allow Disrupt The Game to better serve its clients.
“It’s invaluable,” Galer said. “There’s no way to quantify that as a strength for Jacki (that she can) work at an agency representing players that she has been in the same spot as. … It’s a path that Ticha (Penicheiro) paved the way on, and I think other players like Jacki will follow suit. It’s coming at a time when women’s sports is on the rise. The growth is there for the agencies that are investing and doing it the right way.”
And with Gemelos on board, Disrupt The Game hopes to continue expanding in women’s sports with Gemelos serving as a unique asset.
For her, it’s another step in her career, one that has taken her all over the world but never far from a court. While her role now will look much different than it did a year ago when she was a coach, which looked much different than it did a year before that when she was a player, she said she’s taking all of these pieces to help grow the game from a new place.
“Through all of my experiences and in basketball I’ve seen how teams operate, how players get cut, how the business works. You see some people doing their jobs for themselves and not necessarily for the players,” Gemelos said. “In this job, I’m here for the players. And everything together just makes me want to serve the players in the players’ best interests.”
