Lauren Jackson
Lauren Elizabeth Jackson (born 11 May 1981 in Albury, Australia) is a professional basketball player. She currently plays for the Seattle Storm in the Women's National Basketball Association in the position of power forwards and centers.
Career
Australia (1997 to 2006)
Lauren Jackson began her professional basketball career at the Australian Institute of Sport where she spent three years. From 1999 to 2006 she played for the Canberra Capitals in the Australian Women 's Basketball League. It has also been observed by some WNBA scouts through their good performances for the Capitals and the national team.
WNBA (since 2001)
Lauren Jackson was selected by the Seattle Storm in the first place in the WNBA Draft 2001. Early in her career Lauren Jackson was known mainly for their attacking play, but also for their weakness on the defensive. But her defensive play has improved from year to year. This is also reflected in their statistics, where it is one of the strongest Reboundern and shot -blocker in the league. In the 2003 season, she was voted Most Valuable Player of the season, which was unusual, since Seattle had not made it into the play-offs. In the 2004 season, Lauren Jackson led jointly with Sue Bird Seattle Storm to the WNBA title. However, it was surprisingly neither elected WNBA Finals MVP, but Betty Lennox. 2006 Lauren Jackson was elected to the WNBA All- Decade Team, a selection of ten players who had the biggest impact on the success of the league during the first ten years of the WNBA. On 25 July 2007 Jackson scored 47 points in the game against the Washington Mystics WNBA and thus equaled the record of Diana Taurasi. In fact, she was only the fifth player in the history of the league, which came to more than 40 points in a game. At the end of the season she was named MVP for the second time. In addition, she was honored with the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.
International ( since 1997)
Lauren Jackson made at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 for the first time attention, as she led Australia to the final, but where the team failed due to the United States. In Athens 2004 she failed again with Australia to the United States in the final. In the 2006 World Cup top scorer of the tournament as they led the Australian team to win the title. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she failed again in the final to the United States. So she won for the third time in a row a silver medal at the Olympic Games.
At the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, she was the flag bearer for the Australian team.