NOT DONE yet is the most exciting sporting catchphase going about Australian sport right now. And we should get a little piece of that this weekend.
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Lauren Jackson's seemingly improbable Women's National Basketball League comeback - again - has been billed by media as defying the odds.
Jackson's catch cry "not done yet" speaks volumes more of the athlete she is in continuing to set new standards than it is defying any odds about age or physical conditioning. Jackson still has plenty to offer not just basketball, but the Australian sporting landscape.
This cannot be a prospect an athlete of Jackson's highly-decorated, international calibre approaches lightly.
A record crowd of 7,681 fans had filled Melbourne's John Cain Arena earlier this year to watch Jackson play a WNBL tribute match ahead of an impending retirement. The tribute lasted two minutes' play before Jackson was injured and needing surgery for a leg injury that sent her into months of rehabilitation.
The 42-year-old re-signed with WNBL club Southside Flyers earlier this month, claiming to feel fitter than last year and better than she had in a long time.
This brings Jackson to Ballarat on Saturday night. While highly unlikely we will get Jackson in action for a pre-season hit-out against Bendigo Spirit at Selkirk Stadium, her influence is certain to show courtside.
A long-standing partnership with Bendigo Spirit delivers this match. Spirit, featuring Ballarat Miner Abbey Wehrung and former Miner Alicia Froling, has maintained the WNBL club is a pathway for promising regional talent to push their games to the highest levels.
This alone, even for a practice match, is an incredible prospect for young Ballarat athletes. Let alone having one of the world's best players in the house for a WNBL match.
Off-court, Jackson holds a Basketball Australia role for leading women's participation in the sport. Jackson said in a statement this month an increasing focus on women's sport in Australia - largely driven by the Matildas' FIFA Women's World cup ride - helped fuel her comeback decision.
"If me being part of the WNBL again inspires even one girl or woman to play, or to get involved in basketball, or to come along to see a game, I'll be really happy," Jackson said.
She has done the retirement thing. Suiting up again for Albury-Wodonga Bandits in the NBL1 led to an Australian Opals training camp and a FIBA World Cup call-up in 2022.
This was a player who, before her 2016 retirement, had already become a four-time Olympian (earning three silver medals and one bronze), a five-time WNBL champion and four-time WNBL most valuable player.
And there was the impact she made in the United States as a seven-time Women's National Basketball Association All-Star, three=time MVP in the world's best league and a player who led Seattle Storm to two WNBA championships.
For many this could easily be enough for a satisfying career. When a player like Jackson makes clear she is not done yet, it cannot be tokenistic. This is a player with plenty to prove and that determination alone at the highest levels is incredibly inspirational.
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