Lauren Jackson reboots as Serena Williams exits

As Serena Williams announced she was closing the door on her career, once-retired Opals basketballer Lauren Jackson has shockingly rebooted hers.

Serena Williams in the Vogue photoshoot. Picture: Luis Alberto Rodriguez / Vogue

As Serena Williams – arguably the greatest tennis player of all time – announced she was closing the door on her extraordinary career to focus on motherhood, another GOAT, once-retired Opals basketballer Lauren Jackson, has shockingly rebooted hers.

Both women are 41 this year.

Both are mothers, gritty trailblazers, fighters and sporting superstars; Williams with her 23 grand slam titles, and Jackson a four-time Olympic medallist and three-time WNBA MVP.

Jackson was left almost speechless when her Opals coach Sandy Brondello broke the news to her on Wednesday that, after nine years away from international hoops, she would be included in the World Cup squad.

“No,” Jackson said in disbelief, throwing her head into her hands, as Brondello told her the news. She then cried. “Wow, I don’t know what to say … thank you.”

And Williams? She posed for the cover of Vogue and with it penned a lengthy essay speaking of her “evolution” (she has “never liked” the word retirement) and said this whole scenario would be different if she were a “guy”.

“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” Williams wrote.

“If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labour of expanding our family.

The September Vogue cover. Picture: Vogue

“Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity. Don’t get me wrong: I love being a woman, and I loved every second of being pregnant with Olympia.”

Williams almost died while giving birth in 2017. She had previously suffered from a pulmonary embolism that left her “on her deathbed” and she had to take a year off the tour over 2010 and 2011. She walked back in at No. 175, but within 12 months she was world No. 1 again. She played while breastfeeding and through postpartum depression.

Williams, who termed herself a “fighter”, will leave a mark as arguably the greatest athlete of all time. She won 73 career singles titles, 23 doubles and two mixed doubles. She’s also a four-time Olympic gold medallist.

The essence to “being Serena”, she says, was “expecting the best from myself and proving people wrong”. Though she is yet to equal Margaret Court’s 24-grand slam titles – she’ll have a shot at it at the US Open next month – she is arguably the greatest to have ever played the game, male or female. As former US tennis player Andy Roddick remarked in 2017 of Williams: “We need to enter her into the conversation with Jordan and Ali. I think that’s where the respect lies.”

Williams wrote: “There are people who say I’m not the GOAT because I didn’t pass Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam titles, which she achieved before the ‘open era’ that began in 1968. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. Obviously I do. “But day to day, I’m really not thinking about her. If I’m in a grand slam final, then yes, I am thinking about that record.

Lauren Jackson. Picture: Getty Images

“Maybe I thought about it too much, and that didn’t help. The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus grand slams. I had my chances after coming back from giving birth. But I showed up 23 times, and that’s fine. Actually it’s extraordinary. But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis resumé and building my family, I choose the latter.”

Jackson, who is a mother to two young sons, said she was proud to make it back into the Opals fold. She will help fill a void left by controversial star Liz Cambage and wants the Opals back on the podium at the World Cup.

“I have been working my body hard, and I didn’t honestly know if it was going to hold up to my intense training regime, but it has and I’m feeling good,” Jackson said of making the cut.

“The whole team have been so welcoming and made me feel at home; the age difference disappears as soon as I step on to the court.”

Williams, meanwhile, wrote of seeing Vogue magazine in print and knowing this “the end” of a story she never wanted to stop.

“This sport has given me so much,” she says. “I love to entertain … my whole life, up to now, has been tennis.”

But, as Jackson has proved, anything can happen, and sometimes, retirement, “evolution”, isn’t forever.