Jennifer Gillom

Who is Jennifer Gillom?

Jennifer "Grandmama" Gillom is a former WNBA basketball player who played for the Phoenix Mercury from 1997 to 2002, before finishing her playing career with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2003. Gillom is also a former Sparks head coach, and also coached the Minnesota Lynx; she was most recently hired as an assistant coach of the Connecticut Sun for the 2013 season.

Gillom played college basketball at the University of Mississippi and helped the United States Basketball Team to a gold medal in women's basketball in the 1988 Summer Olympics. Gillom signed with the Mercury in 1996 where she was All-WNBA in 1998 and won the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award in her final season.

Gillom was the head coach of the Xavier College Preparatory High School basketball team in Phoenix, Arizona in 2006. Starting in the 2008 season, Gillom served as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Lynx. In June 2009, she was named head coach of the team. She succeeded Don Zierden, who resigned to accept an assistant coaching job under Flip Saunders of the Washington Wizards.

In 2009, Gillom was elected to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee.