 Jackson was just 19 when she held her own against the U.S. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty |
The performance solidified Jackson as the top amateur player in the world, and she was taken by the Storm atop the 2001 Draft. WNBA stardom proved a little more difficult than international stardom for Jackson. There were growing pains during 2001 and 2002, as Jackson struggled at times with her composure and balancing inside and outside play.
By the time Jackson was named the WNBA's MVP last season, those early seasons were a distant memory. A mature, composed Jackson whose versatility overwhelmed hapless defenders began to dominate their league. Four years later, as the Olympics arrive on the schedule again, Jackson is widely regarded as the best female basketball player in the world. She is the league's leading scorer and three-point shooter and has scored double-figures in every WNBA game she's played since the middle of the 2002 season.
It begs the question - how good can Jackson be in the Olympics this time around?
For her own part, Jackson doesn't think her WNBA experience will change the feeling this time around so much as the venue.
"I don't think the playing is much different, but the 2000 Olympics was in my home country," Jackson notes. "I sort of grew up in Sydney, around the Sydney area. I was playing in front of my family, and that was my whole dream, to play in the Olympics. I think that's pretty much the only difference, the way that I'm going to approach them. As far as playing, I'm just going to help my team do the best we can."
In the next breath, however, Jackson can point out that her experience in the WNBA means she's not nearly as intimidated by the U.S. squad - not that any intimidation was evident in her 2000 performance.
"I think this year, we definitely have more of a chance of beating them for the gold medal," Jackson says. "America's just got this huge aura around them. Hopefully, now that I've played against Americans, especially in the league, I'm definitely going to approach it differently. I'd love to beat them."
In 2000, the Australian squad included 10 players with WNBA or ABL experience - Jackson was one of just two players on the roster who had not played in the US - but only Sandy Brondello and Michelle Timms, who was limited by injuries and averaged less than 10 minutes per game, had truly established themselves as stars. Oddly, the 2004 squad, announced last month, includes just six players who have seen WNBA action. In Jackson and Penny Taylor, however, the Opals have two of the league's top young players. Taylor was an All-Star in 2002 and would have been a strong candidate this season if the league hadn't changed its format to exclude foreign Olympians.
 Jackson now has more than 100 games of experience with the Opals. Daniel Berehulak/Getty |
"I know that we are going to win a gold medal," Jackson told WNBA.com earlier this season - though that might have been for the benefit of Storm teammate Sue Bird, who was sitting next to her. Still, Jackson has clearly allowed herself to think "what if?" about the possibility of winning gold, as evidenced by her comments last Sunday after the Storm's last game before breaking for the Olympics.
"I told (Storm Coach) Anne (Donovan) if we beat the US I’m not coming back," Jackson said to the media. "I’ll need a couple of days with my Australian mates, show my medal to the home folks and then come back. If I could just do that, get off the plane and wave it and then get back on the plane and come here."
For Jackson, the Olympics hold special meaning because both of her parents, Gary and Maree, played for the Australian national team, though neither appeared in an Olympics (the Opals did not qualify for an Olympics until 1984, after the conclusion of Maree's nine years on the national team).
"I think that the Olympics are, for a lot of people, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Jackson explains. "It's something that I, personally, would never take for granted. The WNBA you can always come back next year, whatever, but the Olympics you're representing your country and the people who have supported you your whole life, so it's very important."
Because of that passion for the Olympics, it would have been very difficult for Jackson had Basketball Australia forced her to choose between returning to the Storm this season or playing for the Opals. Brondello and Harrower both chose not to play in the WNBA this season, but BA allowed Jackson and Taylor to play without risking their spots on the roster. (Taylor did have to miss one of the Phoenix Mercury's games in June to play in a three-game warm-up series against China played in Australia.) Jackson says she was never concerned that BA would make her choose.
"No, I wasn't worried at all," Jackson says. "They sat me down a couple of years ago and just sort of asked me what I was thinking of doing. Obviously, the WNBA, for me, it's the best league in the world and it's the best preparation I could possibly have had, and I think they understood that as well."
At 23, Jackson is still plenty young enough to have several more opportunities to play in the Olympics, but there is a sense of urgency for her veteran teammates. Brondello, about to turn 36 and playing in her fourth Olympics, told Fox Sports Australia she plans to retire after the Games. It is also almost certainly the last Olympics for 36-year-old Sporn and perhaps 32-year-old Fallon and 31-year-old Tranquilli.
"Yeah, definitely, for them, for everyone back home who supported us, especially Sandy and the older veterans, the people who have supported them throughout their whole careers," Jackson says. "It's going to be huge for them, and definitely there is a huge sense of urgency for those guys."
