Lauren Jackson announced her retirement today, making official what fans from Seattle to Australia and everywhere in between had hoped would not come so soon – one of the greatest women’s basketball players of all time hanging up her sneakers.

Jackson came to the WNBA as the top pick in the 2001 WNBA Draft and during her time as a member of the Seattle Storm, put together one of the greatest resumes imaginable.

THE RESUME

6th All-Time in Career Points (6,007)
8th All-Time in Career Rebounds (2,447)
3rd All-Time in Career Blocks (586)
6th All-Time in Career Field Goals Made (2,090)
11th All-Time in Career 3-Pointers Made (436)
6th All-Time in Career Free Throws Made (1,391)
7× WNBA All-Star (2001-2003, 2005-2007, 2009)
3× WNBA MVP (2003, 2007, 2010)
2× WNBA Champion (2004, 2010)
3× WNBA Scoring Champ (2003, 2004, 2007)
WNBA Finals MVP (2010)
WNBA Rebounding Champ (2007)
WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (2007)
5× All-WNBA First Team (2003-2007, 2009-2010)
All-WNBA Second Team (2008)
WNBA’s All-Decade Team (2006)
WNBA’s Top 15 Team (2011)

But her impact on the game was bigger than the trophy case needed to hold all of her accolades.

INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTAR

Years before she first stepped foot on a WNBA court, Jackson had been a basketball star in her native Australia. She began playing with the Australian National Team, the Opals, at the age of 16 and has competed in four Olympic Games.

Women’s basketball has always been an international game, with the top players from the United States and around the world competing in leagues all year round. International stars come to the WNBA every summer and American players scatter across the globe during the WNBA offseason to continue to compete.

Of all of the foreign born players to ever play in the WNBA, Lauren Jackson is the cream of the crop. She was the first and remains the only player born outside the United States to be named WNBA Most Valuable Player.

ELITE COMPANY

Jackson is one of three players in WNBA history to win Most Valuable Player honors three separate times, along with Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. Nobody has more. In fact from 2000 to 2010, only two other players won MVP honors outside of that trio – Diana Taurasi (2009) and Candace Parker (2008).

Jackson won her first MVP in 2003, just her third season in the WNBA. She won her first of three scoring titles that year, averaging 21.2 points to go with 9.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.2 steals per game.

“She told me as a very young player that she wanted to be the best player in the world,” Storm coach Jenny Boucek told StormBasketball.com. “It was a momentous feeling because we knew it was possible. She got her first MVP shortly thereafter.”

Her second MVP award came in one of the greatest single seasons in WNBA history. Jackson won her third scoring title (23.8 ppg), her first rebounding title (9.7 rpg) – she remains one of only two players to lead the league in both scoring and rebounding in the same season – and was named Defensive Player of the Year (2.0 blocks, 1.0 steals per game).

Her first two MVP awards came in seasons where Seattle failed to win the championship, but the third time was the charm. After picking up regular season MVP honors, Jackson followed that up by leading the Storm to a perfect 7-0 run in the playoffs to secure their second WNBA title. And since one MVP was not enough that season, she added Finals MVP to her list of honors as well.

OLYMPIC NEMESIS

Prior to Jackson retirement announcement she had been rehabbing from injury in an attempt to compete in her fifth Olympic games in Rio this summer. Jackson has been part of the Australian National Team since she was 16 years old and made her Olympic debut in 2000 in Athens.

While the United States has been able to capture four straight Olympic Gold Medals, Jackson and the Opals were always the biggest threat to take the American squad down. The two teams met in the Gold Medal game in three straight Olympics – 2000, 2004 and 2008 – with Jackson’s squad taking Silver each time. In 2012, the Opals lost in the semifinals but finally won their final game of the Olympics to take home the bronze medal.

WNBA teammates became rivals in those games and existing WNBA rivalries intensified with national pride on the line. While Jackson and the Australian squad were not able to knock off the Americans, they did earn the respect and admiration with their outstanding play.

“Those years and all those battles with Lauren were amazing,” Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings told StormBasketball.com. “She brought out the best in me, in the WNBA and the Olympics. She was tough and did everything and made her teams so hard to play against.”

VERSATILITY

In the modern game, it seems just about every power forward and center is trying to expand their game beyond the arc to stretch the floor and take advantage of the 3-point shot.

Jackson, a trail blazer in this regard, had been doing that since she arrived in the league 15 years ago and established herself as the premier stretch 4 in WNBA history.

“Lauren is the greatest stretch 4 our game has ever seen,” former Storm head coach Lin Dunn told StormBasketball.com. “Her 6’5 frame with post up and guard skills changed our game.”

Jackson’s versatility is what makes her so dangerous. She could just as easily post you up on the block, turn and face from the elbow or step back behind the 3-point line and drain shots from distance. She ranks 11th all-time with 436 3-pointers made and shot the longball at a 35.1% clip.

To have the power and toughness to compete in the paint and the quickness, athleticism and skill to play on the perimeter is a rare combination in any basketball player. Jackson could play with finesse and she could play with force and dominate the game either way.

“Bottom line, Lauren Jackson was the most versatile post player to ever play the game and she set the standard to where all posts will be measured,” former Storm head coach Brian Agler told StormBasketball.com.

DYNAMIC DUO

The Storm won back-to-back No. 1 overall picks in the 2001 and 2002 WNBA Drafts and used those picks to select Jackson in 2001 and Sue Bird a year later. Those selections represented the foundation of a perennial playoff power and a team that would win two WNBA championships.

The combination of Bird’s playmaking skills and Jackson’s all-around excellence on both sides of the ball made for a perfect match. What do you get when you combine the best point guard in the game with the most versatile big in the game? You get a pair that proved to be one of the most formidable duos in WNBA history.

You also get ridiculous highlight plays like this from the 2003 All-Star Game.

“As a young pro athlete you go through a lot, both on and off the court, and I can’t imagine going through it with anyone other than Lauren,” Bird told StormBasketball.com.

“We accomplished a lot together on the court but it’s the friendship that we built off of it that I’m even more thankful for. She’ll always be the best player this franchise has ever seen and one of the best teammates I’ve ever had.”