NOT everybody is going to like Lauren Jackson’s upcoming autobiography.
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She knows it too. She’s had her fair share of critics, on and off the court.
You won’t find an overwhelming amount of personal details in My Story – A Life in Basketball and Beyond, nor will you necessarily find a blow-by-blow account of every battle on the basketball court (though Jackson does do a good job of chronicling the major events of her basketball career).
Instead, the book reads as more of a coming of age.
Jackson’s story as an elite athlete, Australia’s greatest basketballer, is complex; at times as fraught as it is triumphant.
Career highlights such as her multiple WNBA championships and MVPs are balanced by the harsh realities of being a female basketballer.
After her career ended, perhaps more abruptly than she would have preferred, Jackson said the experience of writing the book, with the assistance of Frieda Marnie Nicholls, ultimately was rewarding.
“It was kind of cathartic actually,” she said.
“The sessions we had we honestly so draining because you rehashed so much stuff from my career.
“There were times were I thought ‘oh my God, I can't do this, this is too emotional to bring back those memories’, but Frieda was really good, she worked well with me.”
A decade or more ahead of her time as a player, Jackson's versatile skills set her apart from any star to have come before her, male or female.
She was arguably the first player of her size to pose a threat both with her back to the basket, as well as on the perimeter.
Even now in the NBA, players such as Joel Embiid and Kristaps Porzingis, both 213-centimetre-plus players, are some of the first to truly replicate Jackson's offensive versatility and defensive presence.
That unique skill-set propelled her to stardom very quickly. After moving out of home to train full-time at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra as a teenager, it was clear Jackson was on the path to greatness.
But that greatness came at a cost.
Jackson was growing as a player, both in ability and fame after being selected with the first pick in the 2001 WNBA draft by the Seattle Storm.
Though the Emerald City would come to be a second home, playing year round between her commitments to the Storm and the Canberra Capitals in the WNBL would soon begin to take its toll.
The first major problem, a rotator cuff injury that had bothered Jackson for years going back to her days at the AIS, eventually required surgery.
As the years wore on, the niggles added up – groin, shin splints, various stress fractures.
Though Jackson's profile was getting bigger, she had to remain on the court as much as possible.
Even WNBA contracts aren't as lucrative as they appear, certainly not in the early 2000s.
“It wasn't necessarily a battle,” Jackson said of her run with injuries.
“For me, there was no other option but to play.
“To earn the sort of money I needed to live and to have a life outside of basketball, post-career, I needed to play year-round.
“Women have to do that. You can't be like the men, play around half the year or so and then rehab your body.
“There's just not that sort of money in it.”
Those injuries also began to take a mental toll.
A recurring theme throughout the book is toughness. Jackson found early on as a player that she needed to become physically tougher to compete with the likes of US stars Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson, but this concept wasn't only tested on the court.
The battles with injury, either playing through them of the painstaking process of rehabilitation, fostered a mental toughness that was one of her biggest strengths and also her biggest weaknesses.
Three years removed from the game though has given the three-time WNBA MVP time to properly evaluate what that toughness meant to her.
“Throughout my career, I just got through stuff. I had this innate ability to get through it, to suck it up and cope and I still do, as any woman and mother does,” she said.
“But now, looking back, I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't gone through those things.”
That ability to get through things also manifested in Jackson's personality.
Especially early in her career, Jackson was known as an upstart, even brash.
Former Seattle Storm coach Anne Donovan wrote in the book's foreword that she had expected to find a “cocky and outspoken” rising star when she was hired in 2003.
Donovan found nothing of the sort.
Her star player was driven and ferocious on the court, but off it, Jackson was perhaps uncomfortable in the spotlight, while also being aware that as a player of her stature the spotlight came with the territory.
As you delve further into Jackson's career, you realise that she was a young woman, in her 20s, coming to grips with the world around her, as we all do.
Like anybody, Jackson had, and has, her flaws and she's not afraid to acknowledge them, or those who helped her overcome some of her worst tendencies.
Establishing her place in the world as both a woman and an athlete quickly emerges as one of the book's most compelling narratives.
Jackson took up gender studies later in her career and the examination of her life and career through that lens is compelling.
Themes of power and control emerge as Jackson grapples with the ethics of her career, expecially her time in Russia.
Jackson spent several seasons in Eastern Europe on lucrative contracts, playing alongside her close friend and Storm teammate Sue Bird, as well as WNBA superstar Diana Taurasi, all sponsored by a man named Shabtai Kalmanovic.
“The reality is that women's sport is legitimate, it is amazing, and a lot of girls are going to experience these themes as they go through their careers, perhaps not to the same extent, but I think the lessons I learned are really important for people to understand,” Jackson said.
“It could be anyone, coaches, male coaches, young men with sisters or people who are interested in sports management or dealing with women in general. It's important for men to get a grasp of what we have to deal with as women and female athletes.
“It's interesting, when I do speaking engagements and things like that, people are often shocked at some of the things I’ve been through, all of which are in the book.”
Lauren's Jackson's story – as it stands at the age of 37 – is one not just of highs and lows, but growth and resilience. It's an honest insight into one of our most brilliant and complex athletes.