Lauren Jackson

Her father, Gary, played for the Boomers in 1975, while her 6ft 2in mother, Maree, 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, where she was known for her aggressive style of play and was nicknamed "the assassin".

Her parents continued to play basketball locally on the social level when Lauren and her brother were young, and her family had a basketball court in their backyard when Jackson was growing up.

Her grandfather played for the Western Suburbs Magpies.

Jackson grew up in Albury, where she attended Murray High School.

She earned her Higher School Certificate in Canberra while she was training with the Australian Institute of Sport.

Jackson studied for a psychology degree at Lomonosov Moscow State University and continued via correspondence from America.

Lauren Elizabeth Jackson (born 11 May 1981) is an Australian professional basketball player.

Lauren Elizabeth Jackson, whose nicknames include "Loz", "Jacko" and "LJ", was born in Albury, New South Wales, on Monday, 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.

The daughter of two national basketball team players, Jackson was awarded a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1997, when she was 16.

In 1998, she led the AIS team that won the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) championship.

Jackson joined the Canberra Capitals for the 1999 season when she turned 18 and played with the team off and on until 2006, winning four more WNBL championships.

She was a member of the 2000 Summer Olympics and 2004 Summer Olympics teams and captain of the 2008 Summer Olympics team, winning three silver medals.

In 2001, Jackson entered the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) draft and was selected by the Seattle Storm, which viewed Jackson as a franchise player.

Jackson was a member of the Australian Senior Women's Team that won a silver medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship for Women in China, co-captain of the team that won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and captain of the team that won a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women in Brazil.

She won two WNBA titles with the Storm, in 2004 and 2010, the latter also earning Jackson the WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.

Jackson ranks among the top WNBA players in played games, minutes played, field goals, three-point shots, and turnover percentage.

Jackson played club basketball in Europe with WBC Spartak Moscow in Russia and Ros Casares Valencia in Spain.

She also played in the Women's Korean Basketball League, where she was named the league's Most Valuable Player and set a league record scoring 56 points, and in the Women's Chinese Basketball Association.

In 2007, she was working on a university course in business management.

From 2010 to 2016, Jackson played with the Canberra Capitals, which she did during the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) offseason during the time she continued WNBA play.

Jackson made the Australian under-20 team when she was only 14 years old and was first called up to the Australian Women's National Basketball Team (nicknamed The Opals) when she was 16 years old.

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.

Injuries have prevented her from studying around 2010, but in 2012, she was back working on her degree, and her aspirations have included becoming a United Nations diplomat.

She has also considered becoming an advocate for women.

Her interests regarding gender studies were inspired by a book regarding the rape during the Rwandan Genocide, and Jackson is even an ambassador of a foundation that seeks to empower the abused women of that war.

She was also part of the Australian team that won the bronze at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

By 2015, Jackson was trying to get a Bachelor of Gender and Diversity at the University of Canberra, mostly through distance education.

As a youngster, Jackson was active in other sports.

She was involved in athletics at school and played tennis, which she gave up because competitions conflicted with her ability to play basketball.

Similarly, she played on her school netball team, until the age of 14, giving it up because of basketball commitments.

In the off season, Jackson trains by pumping weights.

Jackson announced her retirement from basketball on 31 March 2016, citing a persistent knee injury as the reason for her decision.

Besides her basketball career, Jackson is in the process of attaining her university degree at the Macquarie University, majoring in gender studies.

Jackson was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020.

In 2021, Jackson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Jackson came out of retirement in April 2022, to play for the Albury Wodonga Bandits in NBL1 East.