Jessica Nicole Breland (born February 23, 1988) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who played in the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

(WNBA) from 2011 to 2021.

Early life and education

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Breland grew up in Kelford, North Carolina, and attended Bertie High School in Windsor where she was a three-sport athlete participating in volleyball and track & field and basketball. In her senior year she averaged 22 points per game and 12 rebounds for the Falcons basketball team. She was an All-American selection by McDonald's, the WBCA, and Parade Magazine, 2nd team All-American selection by EA Sports, 3rd-Team Street and Smith's All-America pick, Gatorade Player of the Year in North Carolina as a senior, and a USA U18 Women's National Team Trials Invitee.

College career

In 2009, when playing for the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels (also Carolina Tar Heels) are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to ...

, Breland was diagnosed with

Hodgkin's lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

, a cancer of the lymph system. She underwent

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

and had to sit out the 2009–10 season, but recovered. In 2011, Breland was awarded the Honda Inspiration Award which is given to a collegiate athlete "who has overcome hardship and was able to return to play at the collegiate level".

Professional career

Breland was selected in the second round of the 2011 WNBA draft (13th overall) by the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Lynx compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference. The team won the WNBA ...

.http://www.wnba.com draft2011/draft_board.html 2011 WNBA Draft board She was then traded to New York. She signed a free agent contract with the Chicago Sky in 2014. On February 2, 2018, Breland signed a contract with the

Atlanta Dream The Atlanta Dream are an American professional basketball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Dream compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded for the ...

. On February 19, 2020, Breland was traded to the

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Mercury compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. One of eight original franchises, it wa ...

in a three-team deal.

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

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2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

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New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

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Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

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2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

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Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, 30, , 2, , 14.6, , 43.9, , —, , 74.1, , 4.0, , 0.6, , 0.6, , 1.0, , 1.1, , 5.3 , - , align="left" ,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

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Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, 32, , 32, , 26.5, , 46.1, , 0.0, , 75.9, , 6.8, , 1.9, , 0.9, , 1.8, , 2.2, , 9.7 , - , align="left" ,

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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, 33, , 30, , 21.4, , 47.1, , —, , 77.4, , 5.9, , 1.3, , 0.7, , 1.1, , 1.0, , 6.7 , - , align="left" ,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

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, 34, , 16, , 17.2, , 49.4, , —, , 79.5, , 4.4, , 0.7, , 0.5, , 1.1, , 1.1, , 6.0 , - , align="left" ,

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

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, 34, , 33, , 24.5, , 47.6, , 38.1, , 78.7, , 6.3, , 1.6, , 0.6, , 1.7, , 1.8, , 9.5 , - , align="left" ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, 34, , 34, , 26.4, , 42.8, , —, , 75.0, , 7.9, , 2.0, , 1.1, , 1.9, , 1.7, , 8.3 , - , align="left" ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

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, 33, , 33, , 23.2, , 37.8, , 23.7, , 87.9, , 7.3, , 1.7, , 1.3, , 1.1, , 1.2, , 7.5 , - class="sortbottom" , align="left" , ''2020'' , align="center" colspan=13, ''Did not play (opted out)'' , - , align="left" ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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, 26, , 18, , 20.9, , 37.2, , 31.3, , 68.4, , 6.3, , 2.0, , 0.6, , 1.5, , 1.8, , 5.8 , - class="sortbottom" , rowspan=2 align="left" , Career , align="left" , 9 years, 5 teams , 269, , 198, , 21.2, , 43.9, , 28.2, , 77.7, , 5.9, , 1.4, , 0.8, , 1.4, , 1.4, , 7.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;", All-Star , 1, , 0, , 22.0, , .333, , —, , —, , 12.0, , 2.0, , 2.0, , 1.0, , 0.0, , 6.0

Playoffs

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, 3, , 3, , 28.3, , 52.0, , —, , 100.0, , 7.7, , 1.3, , 1.3, , 2.3, , 1.0, , 10.0 , - , align="left" ,

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, 5, , 5, , 25.4, , 51.1, , 0.0, , —, , 8.4, , 0.6, , 1.2, , 1.4, , 0.8, , 9.2 , - , align="left" ,

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, 5, , 5, , 31.0, , 37.0, , 0.0, , 83.3, , 10.8, , 2.8, , 0.8, , 2.8, , 1.6, , 9.0 , - class="sortbottom" , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 4 years, 2 teams , 20, , 13, , 22.9, , 44.1, , 0.0, , 90.0, , 7.4, , 1.4, , 0.8, , 1.6, , 0.9, , 6.9

College

References

External links

* 1988 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in China American women's basketball players Atlanta Dream players Basketball players from North Carolina Chicago Sky players 21st-century American sportswomen Connecticut Sun players Forwards (basketball) Indiana Fever players Jiangsu Phoenix players McDonald's High School All-Americans Minnesota Lynx draft picks New York Liberty players North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball players Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) People from Bertie County, North Carolina WNBA All-Stars {{US-women-basketball-bio-stub