JACKO SAYS SUZY THE BEST EVER
LAUREN Jackson is Australian basketball’s GOAT – the greatest of all time. Daylight second, third and fourth.
But this country’s queen of hoops insists Townsville Fire skipper Suzy Batkovic deserves to be recognised as the best player to grace the Women’s National Basketball League.
Jackson boasts four WNBL Most Valuable Player awards, was named WNBL grand final Most Valuable Player four times and also was judged the WNBA’s best on three occasions.
On pure raw ability alone there is no equal to Jackson, but she believes Batkovic’s consistency and longevity over 16 seasons in the domestic league should be recognised.
“Suzy’s played so many years in the league and has been so consistent. She’s 37, her body’s held out and she’s been amazing,” Jackson said.
“It’s a credit to her and she’s definitely the best player this league has seen over the period of her career.
“I’m so happy for her. It’s a credit she’s managed to look after her body as well as she has and she’s able to get out there and do her thing.”
Both players began their remarkable careers at the Australian Institute of Sport in the late 1990s.
They helped guide an AIS side stacked with future superstars including Penny Taylor and Belinda Snell to the WNBL championship in 1998- 99. They’ve played in Olympics together and helped transform the Australian Opals into one of the best teams in the world.
Jackson is now working in the corporate sector for the Melbourne Boomers, the Fire’s rival in the grand final series which begins tonight.
A number of injuries eventually caught up with Jackson, who announced her retirement from basketball in early 2016. But at 37 Batkovic remains at the top of her game, in the mix for another Most Valuable Player award.
She is averaging 20.13 points per game this season ( third in the league) and 10.35 rebounds ( second), and remains just as competitive as ever.
There are few athletes who hate losing more than Batkovic. That fear of failure is what drives her, what motivates her to continue to dominate players several years her junior.
Emotionally and physically, the rest of the Fire squad feed off her.
She has her fair share of niggles, most notably four stress fractures in her back, but even that won’t stop her.
“I’m so competitive that whatever is hurting is put to the side as best as I can. I look at that scoreboard and make sure it’s ticking over on the right side,” Batkovic said recently.
“I have a lot more maintenance these days and feel like I do a pretty good job of that. It’s part of the reason I’m still able to play at the age I’m playing at.
“I jump in the pool a lot and that makes me feel like I’m in my twenties again. An hour after I jump out it doesn’t feel like it, but I think it definitely helps to keeps my hamstrings and glutes really loose because they overload and overwork to try to protect my back.
“Our physio Cat ( Lanksy) does a great job of keeping me on court and she’s been with us long enough now to know what to attack on my body to ease the trouble I have in my back. A key is core strength and a spinal specialist said it’s just management, you need to know when to go and when to pull back.”
Batkovic’s WNBL dominance could have been even greater had she not been absent from the league for seven straight years in the early 2000s plying her trade overseas.
The only individual accolade she’s yet to tick off her hit list is the WNBL grand final MVP.
She couldn’t care less if she receives it, as long as the Fire win, but it would be a fitting and deserving final piece in a stellar career.