Jennifer "Grandmama"Gillom (born June 13, 1964) is an American formerWomen's National Basketball Association (WNBA)basketball player who played for thePhoenix Mercury from1997 to2002, before finishing her playing career with theLos Angeles Sparks in 2003. Gillom is also a former Sparks head coach, also coached theMinnesota Lynx, and was, until 2015, an assistant coach of theConnecticut Sun.
Born inAbbeville, Mississippi, Gillom played college basketball at theUniversity of Mississippi and helped theUnited States Basketball Team to a gold medal in women's basketball in the1988 Summer Olympics.[1] Gillom signed with the Mercury in1997 where she was All-WNBA in1999 and won theKim Perrot Sportsmanship Award in her final season.
Gillom became the head coach of theXavier College Preparatory High School basketball team inPhoenix, Arizona in 2004. Starting in the 2008 season, Gillom served as an assistant coach for theMinnesota Lynx. In June 2009, she was named head coach of the Lynx and stayed as the head coach until the end of 2009 when she was succeeded byCheryl Reeve (who still coaches the team as of 2023).
In March 2024, Gillom led her high school team, the Xavier College Preparatory Gators to win their first-ever WBB championship against defending champs the Desert Vista Thunder.
In 2009, Gillom was inducted into theWomen's Basketball Hall of Fame, located inKnoxville, Tennessee.[2] TheGillom Athletics Performance Center on the Ole Miss campus is named for Gillom and her sisterPeggie Gillom-Granderson, also an Ole Miss former outstanding player.[3]
Source[4]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | G | FG-FGA | PCT | 3P-A | PCT | FT-FTA | PCT | RB-AVG | TP-AVG | A | B | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982-83 | Ole Miss | 32 | 139-301 | 0.462 | --- | --- | 37-67 | 0.552 | 198-6.2 | 315-9.8 | 65 | 29 | 41 |
| 1983-84 | Ole Miss | 30 | 244-471 | 0.518 | --- | --- | 58-100 | 0.58 | 272-9.1 | 546-18.2 | 31 | 22 | 38 |
| 1984-85 | Ole Miss | 32 | 246-460 | 0.535 | --- | --- | 91-135 | 0.674 | 231-7.2 | 583-18.2 | 30 | 26 | 28 |
| 1985-86 | Ole Miss | 32 | 314-577 | 0.544 | --- | --- | 113-181 | 0.624 | 254-7.9 | 742-23.2 | 11 | 35 | 39 |
| TOTALS | 126 | 943-1809 | 0.521 | --- | --- | 299-483 | 0.619 | 955-7.6 | 2186-17.3 | 137 | 112 | 146 |
Gillom played for the USA World University Games team in Kobe, Japan in 1985. The team brought home a silver medal, after falling to the USSR. The team trailed by 18 points at one time, mounted a comeback attempt but fell short, losing 87–81. Gillom was the second leading scorer for the USA team, with 12.8 points per game.[5] The following year, Gillom played for the USA team at the World Championships, in Moscow. This time, the USA team would meet the USSR in the title game and emerge victorious, winning the gold medal with a score of 108–88. Gillom averaged 2.8 points per game.[6]
Gillom was named to the team representing the US at the 1987Pan American Games, held inIndianapolis, Indiana in August. The USA team won all four of their games winning the gold medal for the event. She averaged 9.5 points per game.[7] Gillom continued with the national team at the 1988 Olympics inSeoul, South Korea, held in September. The team won all five games which resulted in the gold medal. Gillom averaged 2.8 points per game.[1]
Gillom was named assistant coach of the USA National team in preparation for competition in the 2010 World Championships and 2012 Olympics. Because many team members were still playing in theWNBA until just prior to the event, the team had only one day of practice with the entire team before leaving forOstrava andKarlovy Vary,Czech Republic. Even with limited practice, the team managed to win their first game against Greece by 26 points. The team continued to dominate with victory margins exceeding 20 points in the first five games. Several players shared scoring honors, withSwin Cash,Angel McCoughtry,Maya Moore,Diana Taurasi,Lindsay Whalen, andSylvia Fowles all ending as high scorer in the first few games. The sixth game was against undefeated Australia—the USA jumped out to a 24-point lead, but the Australian team cut the lead back to single digits late in the game. The USA prevailed 83–75. The USA won their next two games by over thirty points, then faced the host team, the Czech Republic, in the championship game. The USA team had only a five-point lead at halftime, which was cut to three points, but the Czechs never got closer, and went on to win the championship and gold medal.[8]
She continued as an assistant at the2012 Olympics inLondon.[9]
Gillom was selected in the initial player allocation on January 22, 1997 to participate in the WNBA's inaugural season. She was assigned to thePhoenix Mercury and her debut game was played on June 22, 1997 in a 76 - 59 win over theCharlotte Sting where she recorded 4 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.[10] Gillom would be a consistent starter for Phoenix for six seasons from 1997 to 2002, playing in 183 games for the club and starting in all of them. Throughout that 183 games and six seasons, Gillom averaged 15.3 points and 5.0 rebounds. She made the All-Star Team in 1999 and during the All-Star Game on July 14, 1999, helped the Western Conference to a 79 - 61 victory with 6 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal of her own.[11]
The Mercury reached the playoffs in 3 of the 6 seasons that Gillom was on the team. In 1997 the team was eliminated in the Semi-Finals by theNew York Liberty, in 1998 they would reach the Finals but would lose 2 - 1 to theHouston Comets and in 2000 they were swept in the Semi-Finals by theLos Angeles Sparks. The Mercury would go on a continuous slump as a franchise from 2001 to 2003, having a worse record every year than the year before. The team finished with regular season records of 13 - 19 in 2001 and 11 - 21 in 2002. However, for the year 2003 when the team finished 8 - 26, Gillom would not be on the roster as she spent this season as a member of Sparks, signing with the team as an unrestricted free agent May 1, 2003. At the time when Gillom departed from Phoenix, she was the 2nd-leading scorer in league history.[12]
As a member of the Sparks, Gillom played in 33 of the team's 34 games but played in much less minutes than she did during her time on the Mercury. She averaged 3.1 points and 1.7 rebounds playing in only 12 minutes a game (after averaging 30 minutes in Phoenix). The Sparks finished 24 - 10 and Gillom would reach the Finals for the 2nd time in her career. The Sparks were matched up against theDetroit Shock and although they won Game 1 by an impressive 12 points (75 - 63), the team would lose the next two games by 1 point and 5 points respectively. The Sparks missed out on completing a 3-peat as they had just won the previous two titles in 2001 and 2002. Gillom only played in Game 2 of this Finals series and sat out for Game 1 and Game 3.
That 2003 season with the Sparks would be Gillom's only season with the team and her last season in the league entirely as she retired after the crushing loss to Detroit in the Finals. Her final WNBA game was played in Game 2 of the 2003 WNBA Finals on September 14, 2003 in a 61 - 62 loss to the Detroit Shock where she played for only 65 seconds and recorded no stats.[13]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game | RPG | Rebounds per game |
| APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game | BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game |
| TO | Turnovers per game | FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage |
| Bold | Career best | ° | League leader |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Phoenix | 28 | 28 | 31.2 | .434 | .308 | .777 | 5.4 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 15.7 |
| 1998 | Phoenix | 30 | 30 | 32.1 | .463 | .378 | .703 | 7.3 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 20.8 |
| 1999 | Phoenix | 32 | 32 | 34.2 | .381 | .250 | .797 | 5.8 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 2.7 | 15.2 |
| 2000 | Phoenix | 30 | 30 | 27.5 | .440 | .275 | .745 | 3.9 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 12.5 |
| 2001 | Phoenix | 32 | 32 | 26.8 | .423 | .343 | .740 | 4.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 12.3 |
| 2002 | Phoenix | 31 | 31 | 28.2 | .415 | .387 | .802 | 3.7 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 15.3 |
| 2003 | Los Angeles | 33 | 10 | 12.0 | .412 | .269 | .762 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 3.1 |
| Career | 7 years, 2 teams | 216 | 93 | 27.3 | .426 | .325 | .759 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 13.4 |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TO | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Phoenix | 1 | 1 | 31.0 | .364 | .333 | .000 | 7.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 9.0 |
| 1998 | Phoenix | 6 | 6 | 35.7 | .379 | .500 | .846 | 7.8 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 17.0 |
| 2000 | Phoenix | 2 | 2 | 32.0 | .500 | .200 | .500 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 13.0 |
| 2003 | Los Angeles | 6 | 0 | 3.7 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Career | 4 years, 2 teams | 15 | 9 | 22.1 | .382 | .417 | .750 | 3.9 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 9.1 |
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