Lauren Jackson

Lauren Elizabeth Jackson (born 11 May 1981) is an Australian former professional basketball player. Arguably the most notable Australian women's basketball player, Jackson has had a decorated career with the Australia women's national basketball team (the Opals) and has had multiple stints in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) between 1997 and 2024. Between 2001 and 2012, she played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

With the Australian Opals, Jackson played at the Summer Olympics in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2024, winning three silver medals and two bronze medals. In the WNBL, she is a seven-time champion (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2024) and a four-time league MVP (1999, 2000, 2003, 2004). In the WNBA, she won two championships (2004, 2010) and three league MVPs (, , ).

The daughter of two national basketball team players, Jackson was awarded a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1997, where she debuted in the WNBL when she was 16. She helped the AIS win the WNBL championship in 1999 before joining the Canberra Capitals, where she won championships in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2006 during her first stint. She won her sixth championship in 2010 with Canberra and her seventh in 2024 with the Southside Flyers. She earned WNBL Grand Final MVP in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2010.

In 2001, Jackson entered the WNBA draft and was selected by the Seattle Storm. She played 12 seasons for the Storm, with her final WNBA season coming in 2012. She helped the team win championships in 2004 and 2010 while earning Finals MVP in 2010. Jackson ranks among the top WNBA players in games played, minutes played, field goals, three-point shots, and turnover percentage. She collected multiple individual accolades and was named to multiple WNBA Anniversary Teams.

In 2016, Jackson retired from basketball. She came out of retirement in 2022 and returned to the WNBL and the Opals. She retired again following the 2024 Paris Olympics. Jackson was inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020, and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.

Early life Jackson, whose nicknames include "Loz", "Jacko" and "LJ", was born in Albury, New South Wales, on 11 May 1981, the older of two children of Gary Jackson and his wife Maree Bennie. Both her parents played for Australia's national basketball teams and Jackson inherited her height from both parents. Jackson was 196 cm by the time she turned 16, played for the Opals from 1974 to 1982. Bennie played in two World Championships, and for the women's basketball team at Louisiana State in the late 1980s, wearing the number 15, the number Jackson wears in her mother's honour. Bennie was one of the first Australians to play in the American collegiate system, Her parents continued to play basketball locally on a social level when Lauren and her brother were young,

Jackson grew up in Albury, where she attended Murray High School. She was described as a basketball prodigy by the time she was seventeen years old.

Jackson was active in other sports growing up, competing in athletics at school as well as tennis and netball. She has been described as Australia's best female player and the best female basketball player in the world.

Jackson had a rivalry with American basketball player Lisa Leslie. The rivalry continued when Jackson transitioned to the WNBA and her Seattle Storm team played Leslie's Los Angeles Sparks, who at the time were the best team in the league. The rivalry was so intense that their coaches had to coach around it, sometimes choosing to keep one off the floor when the other was on. The coaches feared if they left the players on the floor together, their own player would foul out in an attempt to get the best of the other player. and joined the AIS basketball team in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) for the 1997 season. The programme considers her one of its success stories. With Jackson leading a side composed of the best 16- to 17-year-old development players in the country, She helped the Capitals return to the grand final in 2000–01, where they lost to the Sydney Panthers despite her 22 points and 20 rebounds. She won her third championship in 2001–02 with a victory over Sydney in the grand final. She was named grand final MVP for the first time after recording 29 points and 21 rebounds. At the time, the attendance was the best ever for a regular season WNBL game, with only two Grand Finals games in the post season having more people in attendance.

In October of the 2003–04 season, Jackson had a 48-point game. This was her highest individual game point total at the time and is her single highest WNBL point scoring game.

Jackson returned to the Capitals for the second half of the 2009–10 WNBL season and helped them win another championship.

In 2011, Jackson signed a unique $1 million three-season, five-year deal to play with the Capitals. This was the most an Australian woman had ever been offered to play for a domestic side in the country. For the 2013–14 season, the Capitals missed the deadline date to sign Jackson and led her to play in China instead. but did not join the team until December 2014 after undergoing hip surgery in September. Jackson appeared in six games, losing only one as she averaged 13 points and seven rebounds. She required weekly drainings of synovial fluid out of her knee and eventually her knee gave in. A subsequent MRI scan showed further damage to her knee that required new surgeries, forcing Jackson to sit out the rest of the season. She did not play for the Capitals in 2015–16 and the team released her from her contract in January 2016. She was named league MVP and helped the Bandits win the NBL1 East championship.

In August 2022, Jackson signed with the Southside Flyers for the 2022–23 WNBL season. A February 2023 game against the Sydney Flames set a WNBL record crowd of 7,681 spectators due to the interest in Jackson's participation; however during the game an Achilles injury put Jackson out for the rest of the season.

With the Flyers in the 2023–24 season, Jackson helped the team win the grand final series against the Perth Lynx. It marked her seventh WNBL championship.

Jackson joined the Albury Wodonga Bandits for the 2024 NBL1 East season. In May 2024, she had a game with 43 points and 22 rebounds and a game with 50 points and 19 rebounds. She had another 50-point game in June.

After undergoing a knee replacement following the 2024 Paris Olympics, Jackson once again retired from basketball.

WNBA Seattle viewed Jackson as a franchise player. She played in 21 games. Jackson ranked eighth in the league with 406 field goal attempts. She averaged 2.9 blocks per game.

2007 Jackson was a WNBA All Star for the sixth time in 2007. In 2007, she was named the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. She averaged 32.9 minutes per game. In July 2008, she scored 33 points for the Seattle Storm in an 84–71 win against Washington. This was her season-high scoring high. On the same day she was officially named to the 2008 Australian Olympic squad, and the Seattle Storm went out of the post season in the first round. In 2008, she played in 21 games. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.

Jackson played in 32 games. The Storm saw an early playoff exit in their series against the Minnesota Lynx, with Jackson attempting a buzzer beater in the third game but falling short. This turned out to be Jackson's final game in the WNBA. and she also missed the 2014 season after operating both her right knee and left Achilles in February. The final year of her Storm contract was suspended in 2013 and dissolved under the new collective-bargaining agreement signed in 2014, but Seattle still retained Jackson's rights. During her 2014 recovery, Jackson expressed interest in returning to Seattle in 2015, saying that despite so much time sidelined by injury, "I've just had too good of a career there to let that fall by the wayside." Her attentions turned to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. However, in November 2015, Jackson announced that her rehabilitation had suffered a setback that would keep her from practising until January 2016. Upon taking the court again, she stated she would decide in February 2016 if she would participate in what would be her fifth Olympic games or retire from the sport. Her retirement was announced one month later.

WNBA career statistics

†Denotes seasons in which Jackson won a WNBA championship

Regular season

Postseason

Other Korea In December 2006, Jackson moved to South Korea to play for Samsung Bichumi of the Women's Korean Basketball League. In March, she set a league record with 56 points in a game against Kumho Redwings. The team had just won the 2006–07 EuroLeague. Her teammates included Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Tina Thompson. The team won the 2007–08 Russian Superleague title as well as the 2007–08 EuroLeague and 2008–09 EuroLeague. She scored 35 points in a EuroLeague game on 11 April 2008 against UMMC Ekaterinburg. She later returned to Spartak for the 2010–11 season. On 3 December 2010, she was named the EuroLeague Women Player of the Week She averaged 17.3 points and 8.4 rebounds per game Part of her treatment involved getting an MRI. playing in the Liga Femenina and the EuroLeague.

China For the 2013–14 season, Jackson joined the Heilongjiang Shenda of the Women's Chinese Basketball Association. She helped Heilongjiang qualify for the playoffs with averages of 22 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, but a heel injury saw Jackson miss the post-season. During the season, she injured her meniscus. It was not deemed too grave at the time, but the knee problems would escalate during the following years.

Jackson was a member of the 1997 Australian Junior Women's Team that won a silver medal at the World Championships in Brazil. At the time, she was 16 years old. At the time, she was 16 years old and the youngest Australian woman ever to be named to the team. She averaged 23.1 points a game in the competition and was named to the All-Star team for the tournament. where she averaged 22.9 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. She played in the preliminary final against the Mozambique women's national basketball team, and the gold deal match against New Zealand. Jackson averaged 21.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Jackson averaged 17.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. She averaged 13.4 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. but was back by April to train with the team. In June, Jackson tore her adductor magnus muscle during the Australian training camp in the Czech Republic. and chosen to carry the Australian flag during the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games. The hamstring injury prevented Jackson from getting much play during the Olympic tournament, having only had significant court time in the matches against USA and the bronze medal play-off with Russia. Australia went on to win the bronze medal, with Jackson recording 30 points and 7 rebounds in their victory over Canada.

In February 2024, Jackson helped the Opals qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics. She initially intended to retire for a third time after the qualifying tournament, but the following month she was named in the Opals Olympic squad, who accepted her request to bring her children to the Olympics. Jackson had a reduced participation, with only twenty minutes and six points through the tournament, but became the first Australian athlete to win medals in five editions of the Olympic Games once she earned the bronze.

A month after the 2024 Olympics, Jackson underwent a knee replacement. She subsequently retired from international duties for the final time.

Health issues Jackson has had multiple injuries. In 2008, after the Olympics, she had surgery to fix her ankle. She had surgery on her left hip acetabular labrum in June 2011 in Vail, Colorado at the Richard Steadman Clinic. During her WNBL return in 2022, Jackson played several games with a broken foot before a tear in her right Achilles ended her season in February 2023. and decided to quit the painkillers and sleeping pills that she had been taking since the age of 20 to deal with chronic pain, leading to drug withdrawal. Her unretirement in the 2020s had Jackson using medicinal cannabis to reduce her pain.

Celebrity By 2003, Jackson was being recognised around the world from countries like Portugal and Japan. She does not like to go out to clubs because she gets recognised by too many people, and everyone wants to comment on her height. She partied a fair amount in her early 20s.

When people google Jackson, some of the first search results feature her in the nude. She also posed for the 2005 edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Of posing nude, she said, "if offered the opportunity, I think that it's a personal decision. Whether you do it for the money or whatever, again, I think it's a personal decision. I don't know whether I would say yes or no. I guess you cross that bridge when you come to it. I don't think it's a bad thing, I'm not against it."

As Jackson got older, she took on a more activist role, In December 2002, she helped launch the Smith Family Toy Drive at the Canberra Centre with the help of Ainslie school children.

Honours Jackson was named the Australian International Player of the Year in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008. In 2005, she was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport's 'Best of the Best'.

In 2011, the Albury Sports Stadium was renamed the Lauren Jackson Sports Centre. A thousand people showed up at the renaming ceremony, at which Jackson was the guest of honour. On 8 June 2015, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Jackson was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020, the same year in which she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. The following year, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was named to the WNBA's 25th anniversary team. Jackson was an inaugural inductee to the University of Canberra Sport Walk of Fame in 2022.

In November 2024, Jackson was honoured at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Awards, receiving The Dawn Award. The award recognises an individual, team or organisation who "show courage and bravery and have changed sport for the better".

Personal life Jackson earned her Higher School Certificate in Canberra while she was training with the Australian Institute of Sport. In 2007, she was working on a university course in business management. In 2010, she was taking classes at Macquarie University in Sydney. Her coursework was centred in cultural studies and included topics like women's rights and racism. By 2015, Jackson was trying to get a Bachelor of Gender and Diversity at the University of Canberra, mostly through distance education. She had a second child in 2018. and joined the new ownership group of the Melbourne Boomers. She served as a commentator for the Seven Network during the 2016 Olympics, on studio rather than travelling to the Games because of her pregnancy.