Lauren Jackson wants to make one thing clear: “I’m not who I was as a player”.
But there is more to the return of Australia’s greatest basketball player than meets the eye. At 41, Jackson joins the Opals squad for the FIBA World Cup which starts in Sydney on Thursday night.
Lauren Jackson has returned to the Opals squad for the World Cup.Credit:Getty
For years, Jackson shouldered expectation and pressure to carry the Opals until her body would let her go no further. Six years ago, she had to walk away with her troublesome knees the final straw after basketball had become more of a chore than a passion.
It was hardly a retirement fit for a four-time Olympian who had won multiple championships and MVP awards across Australia and the United States.
Now she returns, confident her body can hold up for one last dance. How long she plays beyond this World Cup and looming WNBL season depends on how long her body holds up. She knows she won’t be as fast. But neither was Ian Thorpe when he returned to the pool. Michael Jordan also wasn’t quite the same.
But Opals coach Sandy Brondello doesn’t need Jackson to be the same player whose WNBA jersey was retired by the Seattle Storm. Jackson says her greatest asset for today’s Opals is perspective.
Emma Meesseman (Belgium(, Ivana Raca (Serbia), Lauren Jackson (Australia) Ariel Atkins (USA) at the World Cup launch.Credit:Getty
“It’s been a real head game, just because of the injuries I dealt with in my career,” Jackson said at the World Cup launch at Bondi Beach.
“I’ve never had so much fun playing because the pressure is off now. I don’t need to prove anything, I just get to go out there and really complement my teammates. I’m really happy playing that role.
“I never expected I’d actually make the team. I think my presence lifted everyone a little bit just in the sense I am so physical. I can’t run as quickly as I used to, so obviously I have to bang a little bit more. They always say the journey is the most important part, and it’s true for me, it has been in my career. This is one of the most special rides I’ve been on, for sure.
“[Doubts] come in every day, that’s no lie. I talk to the people closest to me, I talk to my parents like I did when I was playing. Even last night, I was talking to a sports psych who is helping me through as well. We’re all the same, we all have self-doubt, we all have to respond to that. It’s how you respond to it.”
Belgium’s Emma Meesseman has always told anybody who would listen that Jackson is the player she always wanted to play against. Serbia’s Ivana Raca grew up watching Jackson’s highlights. Team USA’s Ariel Atkins says it was an honour to stand beside Jackson to launch the World Cup.
Now it becomes real. The greatest player the women’s game has ever seen is back. The occasion is dawning on the basketball world. But at home? Jackson’s two boys Harry and Lenny, aged five and three, are not quite aware of what is about to transpire.
“Athletes prepare their whole lives, and you know what, truly I have prepared my whole life for this, I’ve just not prepared the past eight years,” Jackson said.
“The kids are not old enough to understand, when they get near it and they see these girls out on the court, they’re going to be blown away. They love women’s basketball anyway because they’ve been around me. They’ll understand how special this is when they get near it.”
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