Coming off a record-breaking season, Chanel Jemmott ’21, one of the most talented players in the team’s history, has big plans for pro ball and a legal career. Chanel Jemmott ’21 recently was named an honorable mention to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division III All-America team for the third year. That was after D3Hoops.com named her an All-Region 4 performer. Before that? CUNYAC Player of the Year—for the second straight season. All were great honors; none were surprises. Jemmott, now a graduate student in business management, had already become legend on the women’s basketball team. Their all-time leading scorer with nearly 1,700 points had also logged more than 1,000 rebounds in her career, becoming only the fourth player in CUNYAC history to do so. After having to sit out during her senior year due to the pandemic, Jemmott came back with a vengeance this season, leading the Bulldogs to a second consecutive CUNYAC championship and earning her second tournament MVP title at the same time. But the Seton Hall University transfer, who walked away from Division I ball to be closer to home and to play for a team where she’d have an impact, says she’s focused on staying humble. BC: You’ve had a phenomenal basketball career at Brooklyn College—among the best individual and team records in the college’s history. What do you want to do after graduation? CJ: I would like to play professionally overseas in Ireland or Spain. In America, WNBA players don’t receive as much recognition because fans don’t know them on a deeper level. I think maybe five years of traveling and playing basketball would be a successful career for me. After that, I want to go to law school to concentrate in business law. I want to focus on real estate, specifically. BC: You’re such a star on the court. What are you like in the classroom? CJ: Very inquisitive. I like to ask a lot of questions. I enjoy learning, and in most of my classes, I absorb all the knowledge I can receive. I especially enjoyed a course in business law because we would have to know certain cases before class meetings and be prepared to stand up and present to the class. BC: Where did you get that drive that pushes you so hard? Do you come from a hoops family? CJ: I was the only one in my family to play basketball until my younger cousin, who is like my carbon copy, started coming up. Besides that, my family cares about me, and because of the focus I give to basketball, they started to care about the game, too. They say I picked up a basketball at three years old, and from that point I just liked it. My personality made me determined to get better at it. BC: You left a Division I team to play here, a Division III school. What was your strategy behind that? CJ: What I learned is to not get caught up in the hype of divisions. If you are passionate about the sport, you can really thrive at any level, so long as you work for it by putting in the time and effort. BC: You’ve been at Brooklyn College a few years now. Is there a place on campus where you go to recenter your focus? CJ: Whenever I get some me-time, I go to the West Quad Center and shoot hoops for an hour or so. Doing anything sports-related helps my energy shift.
