Lauren Jackson is one of the best basketball players the game has ever seen. During her time with the Seattle Storm, she won two WNBA championships, in 2004 and 2010. Jackson and fellow former Storm player Swin Cash were named to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2020 earlier this year.
“I’m so excited [about] that,” Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jenny Boucek said in an interview with Heavy.com. Boucek was an assistant with the Storm during most of Jackson’s career. “Lauren [Jackson] is the best player that I have ever coached. She is the most dominant that I would say that I have ever coached, and to dominate the game in so many different ways,” Boucek said.
Jackson was forced to retire from professional basketball in 2016 after having a setback in her rehab process for a severe knee injury she sustained in 2014.
“I believe if that didn’t happen and she stayed healthy and played into her late 30s, nobody would be debating me on this. It wouldn’t be a question if she would be a Hall of Famer as one of the best, if not the best ever. And we would have several more championships in Seattle. Several more. She is just dominant, that is the word that comes to mind,” Boucek said.
Seattle Storm ownership congratulated Jackson and Cash in a statement released in February:
We are thrilled for Lauren and Swin’s selection for induction into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Both are incredibly deserving of this high honor. The contributions made to the Storm team and the Storm organization are immeasurable but include WNBA championships, multiple All-Star and MVP honors, and tremendous contributions to our Seattle community. We are incredibly fortunate to have had them as a part of the Seattle Storm organization and offer huge congratulations to them on this wonderful recognition.
The Seattle Storm Retired Jackson Jersey
Two months after Jackson announced she was officially retiring from basketball, the Seattle Storm announced that Jackson would be the first player in franchise history to have her number retired on July 15, 2016.
At the time, it had been four years since Jackson was in Seattle, and she acknowledged that during her speech to the Storm crowd.
“It’s funny,” Jackson said. “It feels like I haven’t been gone at all. It doesn’t feel like it’s been four years. It doesn’t even feel like a couple days. It just feels like I’ve been here the whole time, and I haven’t. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s been a while.”
Jackson is a three-time league MVP (2003, 2007, 2010) and was named the Finals MVP in 2010 after leading the Storm to victory against the Atlanta Dream.
She spent 12 seasons in the WNBA and averaged 18.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.7 blocks per game. She also won five silver medals with the Austrian National team dating back to her time on the Junior Women’s Team. Jackson was also a part of the WNBA’s Top 15 and Top 20 lists of players to ever play in the league in its 15th and 20th years, respectively.
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Lauren Jackson is The Best Player I’ve Coached, Says Mavs’ Jenny Boucek