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| Canberra Times - September 16 2003 - p21 |
By Andrew Benson
The only thing different about the best female basketballer on the planet is that she wasn't officially recognised as such 48 hours ago.
By winning the WNBA MVP yesterday Canberra's Lauren Jackson was recognised as tile best female player in the world.
Jackson clearly won the award. polling 406 points in the voting. from Indiana Fever's Tamika Catchings (248).
With 23 of a possible 58 firstplace votes she was a clear winner.
But don't expect to see a vastly different Jackson when she trades in her current Seattle Storm strip for her beloved Canberra Capitals strip in a few weeks.
| STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO BECOMING A SUPERSTAR | |
|
Name: Lauren Jackson Position: Forward/Centre DOB: 11.05.81 Height: 195cm 1997: WNBL Rookie of the year with AIS. 1998-99: Wins WNBL Championship with the AIS. WNBL MVP. 1999-00: Wins WNBL Championship with the Capitals. WNBL MVP. 2000: Wins Olympic silver medal. 2000-01: WNBL All-star team. |
2001: Joins Seattle Storm in the WNBA, makes All-star team 2001-2002: Wins WNBL Championship with the Capitals. WNBL All-star team. 2002: WNBA All-star team. World Championships bronze medal. WC all-star team. 2002-2003: Wins WNBL Championship with the Capitals. WNBL All-star team. 2003: WNBA MVP. |
"When she comes back to Canberra people won't be seeing things like a left-hand hook shot or spin moves from the perimeter or anything new like that." Capitals coach Carrie Graf said.
"She's just doing everything she was doing before and doing it just that little bit harder, with just that little bit more determination.
"She's just polished the things that she's already good at."
Just last month Jackson's coach at the Storm. Anne Donovan, announced her star player didn't deserve the MVP if the Storm did not make the play-offs - which they didn't. Yesterday everything was different.
"Lauren Jackson is truly deserving of the MVP award and proved why she was consistently the best this season." Donovan said.
Although her team did not make it into the play-offs, judges found it hard to look past the statistics.
Jackson, 22, is the first international and the youngest player to win the MVP, leading the league with 21.2 points a game.
She ranked in the top 20 in a remarkable 32 categories, finishing fourth in rebounds (9.3 per game) and third in blocks ( 1.94) to cap one of the best individual seasons in the WNBA's short history.
Canberra Capitals captain Lucille Bailie said winning the MVP gave Jackson a complete set of awards. "She's won the WNBL MVP, she's won a world championship MVP. and now she's won the. WNBA MVP," Bailie said. "After this she has to be Australia's greatest basketball export, male or female."
In her third season in the WNBA Jackson has made the All-star tram every year and has improved steadily as a player since her debut.
For three years now Jackson has had one of the busiest schedules in world sport. She plays both the WNBA and the WNBL while also fitting in representative duties with the Australian Opals. But while it may seem hectic, Bailie believed Jackson would always play in Canberra. "She enjoys being here," Bailie said.