Jackson’s fifth Games medal a vivid Paris send-off
Even Lauren Jackson’s son was complaining she didn’t get much court time.
But the Opals great – 43 and in her fifth Olympic campaign 12 years after her last – insists she loved being able to just sit back and watch.
There were no minutes for Jackson in what was surely her last game for Australia while Ezi Magbegor played one of the great Olympic hands in a four-point defeat of Belgium to secure bronze in Paris.
Jackson, who had retired before the 2016 Olympics with three silver and a bronze already in her pocket, was used sparingly by her old teammate and coach Sandy Brondello in Paris.
“Lenny’s always like, ‘Mum why aren’t you getting on the court?’,” Jackson laughed, in reference to her eldest of two sons and his comments in Paris.
“But it was amazing.
“The last four Olympics, I’ve played minutes and don’t have memories of what it felt like to get a medal; they’re very vague.
“It’s soaked in, every single minute, and I will remember it for the rest of my life.
“It’s crazy … when I had them (her two children) there was no thought I was ever going to set foot on the court again.
“It’s happened and it’s been special.”
Knee pain forced Hall of Famer Jackson out of the game more than eight years ago.
But she has executed a remarkable second-coming, starring to win World Cup bronze in 2022 and now adding a fifth Olympic medal, the Opals’ sixth in total, and becoming the oldest person to play Olympic basketball.
She already had two Olympic silver medals before Opals guard Isobel Borlase, 19, was born.
“That was the knock on me when I had to retire early the first time,” Jackson said of her longevity.
“That’s not why I started playing again – I just wanted to get fit – but this second part has just been a dream come true.
“I could never have imagined it.
“It won’t sink in until I’m at home with my kids in Albury just chilling. It’s crazy.”
Their bronze medal run, filled with stand-out performances from young guns like 24-year-old Magbegor, 21-yeard-old Jade Melbourne and Borlase also warmed her heart.
Jackson said she was told not to announce her retirement after the game.
But even if she did it would need to be taken with a grain of salt, given she had pulled the pin twice more in the past two years only to return.
“I’ve been told that I have to say, ‘I’m just going to celebrate today with the girls’,” she said.
She’ll be able to leave knowing Australia’s program is in good hands.
“There’s a runway (to Brisbane’s 2032 Games) with the amount of girls playing significant roles in the WBNA, and you saw Ezi today,” she said.
“We have players that can step up and I do believe we can knock them (USA) off one day.”
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