Speaking at the newly named Lauren Jackson Sports Centre on Saturday, Mr Sengstock said Jackson’s rise from Albury junior to the summit of women’s basketball proved that you don’t need to live in metropolitan areas to succeed.

“It’s a great honour for Lauren, it’s a great honour for basketball to be able to do this, and it just shows the strength of the sport and what it can do in these sort of towns,” Mr Sengstock said.

“It’s a great thing for here, it just helps the profile on a regional level, this sort of things shows you can go from playing here to become the best player in the world.

“So what a great thing that is and a great advertisement for the sport.”

With Jackson signing on to play for the ­WNBL’s Canberra Capitals for three of the next five seasons and the Caps also committing a home game in Albury for the next three years, Mr Sengstock said raising the profile of basketball on a nationwide level was crucial to the sport’s development.

“One of the great things we can do with basketball is take it to the regional centres, it doesn’t just have to be in the main ­cities,” he said.

Mr Sengstock also revealed that the regional success of the Bendigo Spirit meant that if the Border community provided the necessary financial and administrative support, there was no reason Albury-Wodonga couldn’t have a WNBL team.

“It’s something that requires a hell of a lot of effort from the locals and it’s an expensive, risky business that requires that kind of support before you can go forward with it,” he said.