Lauren Elizabeth Jackson (born 11 May 1981) is an Australian former professional basketball player. Arguably the most notable Australian women's basketball player, Jackson has had a decorated career with the Australia women's national basketball team (the Opals) and has had multiple stints in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) between 1997 and 2024. Between 2001 and 2012, she played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
With the Australian Opals, Jackson played at the Summer Olympics in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2024, winning three silver medals and two bronze medals. In the WNBL, she is a seven-time champion (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2024) and a four-time league MVP (1999, 2000, 2003, 2004). In the WNBA, she won two championships (2004, 2010) and three league MVPs (2003, 2007, 2010).
The daughter of two national basketball team players, Jackson was awarded a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1997, where she debuted in the WNBL when she was 16. She helped the AIS win the WNBL championship in 1999 before joining the Canberra Capitals, where she won championships in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2006 during her first stint. She won her sixth championship in 2010 with Canberra and her seventh in 2024 with the Southside Flyers. She earned WNBL Grand Final MVP in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2010.
In 2001, Jackson entered the WNBA draft and was selected by the Seattle Storm. She played 12 seasons for the Storm, with her final WNBA season coming in 2012. She helped the team win championships in 2004 and 2010 while earning Finals MVP in 2010. Jackson ranks among the top WNBA players in games played, minutes played, field goals, three-point shots, and turnover percentage. She collected multiple individual accolades and was named to multiple WNBA Anniversary Teams.
In 2016, Jackson retired from basketball. She came out of retirement in 2022 and returned to the WNBL and the Opals. She retired again following the 2024 Paris Olympics. Jackson was inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020, and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
Jackson, whose nicknames include "Loz", "Jacko" and "LJ", was born in Albury, New South Wales, on 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. Jackson was 196 cm by the time she turned 16, after she gained 15 cm in height when she was 15 years old. Her father, Gary, played for the Boomers in 1975, while her 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 metres) 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 a 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.
Jackson started playing basketball at the Albury Sports Centre when she was four years old. As a six-year-old, she told others that she would one day play for the Australian national team in Basketball. Her mother taught her how to play. She first played competitive basketball as a six-year-old she played on a local under-10 side. Her mother was her coach for two years. This was difficult for both mother and daughter in order to change their personal dynamics. As an 11-year-old, Jackson was not the best player in Albury, but she played in the under-14 Australian Country Championships. Her team made it to the Grand Final one year, and she played in the match despite having hurt her knee. She was upset after the event. In response to this, her parents sat down with her and explained she did not need to continue to play if she did not want to. Following this conversation, she went to her room and typed a message on her computer that said "from this day on, nothing will stand in my way..."
When she was 14 years old, Jackson led her New South Wales side to a national championship gold. Her performance in the tournament attracted the attention of the national team selectors. Tom Maher said of the game: "Right then and there, I said, 'Is this the best thing I've ever seen?' It was just unbelievable. Those old guys had seen a lot of basketball, and they were drooling." As a competitor at the 1999 Australian Under-20 national championships, she won the Bob Staunton Award for the tournament MVP. She was described as a basketball prodigy by the time she was seventeen years old.
Jackson was active in other sports growing up, competing in athletics at school as well as tennis and netball. At the age 14, basketball commitments led to her giving up the other sports.
Jackson was recognised as one of the world's best basketball players by the time she was 21. She has been described as Australia's best female player and the best female basketball player in the world. She has said regarding being the best female basketball player in the world: "I don't really think about it. Nobody really talks to me like that. It's not something I'm conscious of. My family and people who have known me all my life, they see me for who I am, and crack open a beer or a bottle of wine with me. They know I have to train, but the rest of it is really laid-back."
Jackson played two positions, power forward and centre, and had the ability to make jump shots and spinning bank shots.
Jackson had a rivalry with American basketball player Lisa Leslie. The rivalry reportedly started when Jackson was on tour in the United States with the Opals as a 16-year-old. The rivalry intensified in 2000 at the Olympics in the gold medal match when Jackson purposely pulled off Leslie's hair extension while both were trying to grab a rebound. Jackson treated the incident as a joke, saying "It was something to joke about even though we lost the gold medal." Leslie did not feel the same way about the extension pulling incident. The rivalry continued when Jackson transitioned to the WNBA and her Seattle Storm team played Leslie's Los Angeles Sparks, who at the time were the best team in the league. The rivalry was so intense that their coaches had to coach around it, sometimes choosing to keep one off the floor when the other was on. The coaches feared if they left the players on the floor together, their own player would foul out in an attempt to get the best of the other player. Leslie and Jackson have played together as team members in the WNBA's All-Star game. Their rivalry thawed somewhat by 2007 but they did not become friends.
Jackson was offered a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1996, when she was just 15, but her parents said no to this, as it required her to move from Albury to Canberra. The next year, she accepted a scholarship and joined the AIS basketball team in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) for the 1997 season. The programme considers her one of its success stories. She was named the WNBL Rookie of the Year for the 1997 season. With Jackson leading a side composed of the best 16- to 17-year-old development players in the country, the AIS won the WNBL championship in the 1998–99 season.
Jackson joined the Canberra Capitals for the 1999–2000 season and helped them win the championship, recording 15 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks in a 67–50 win over the Adelaide Lightning in the grand final. She helped the Capitals return to the grand final in 2000–01, where they lost to the Sydney Panthers despite her 22 points and 20 rebounds. She won her third championship in 2001–02 with a victory over Sydney in the grand final. She was named grand final MVP for the first time after recording 29 points and 21 rebounds.