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Lauren Jackson was forced into retirement by knee injuries, came back six years later and suffered another potentially career-ending injury, only to come back and sign off the last WNBL season with another title.
The Australian basketball legend played 30 minutes of the Southside Flyers' 115-81 win in game three of the grand final series against Perth Lynx, marking Jackson's sixth WNBL crown.
It was a remarkable effort by the 42-year-old, who very easily could have packed it in last season when she ruptured her Achilles tendon in the first minute of a game against Sydney in front of a record crowd a month before the 2023 playoffs.
The torn right Achilles was a compensation injury from what she thought was arthritis in her left foot.
She had been to the doctor and told him she could not walk after games and was struggling to sleep, asking for painkillers to just get her through the rest of the season.
Loading..."[I was] thinking, 'If this is arthritis I'm not going to be able to play basketball again,'" she told ABC Sport Daily.
But, as it turned out, scans had missed a broken bone in her left foot that she had been playing on for six weeks.
"It was quite traumatic … I was in so much pain and I didn't know what it was," she said.
"When I found out it was broken I had a bit of a meltdown emotionally because I should have trusted myself and had it double-checked and triple-checked."
Jackson was unsure if she wanted to play again but took extra care over her rehabilitation for the sake of her two sons, Harry and Lennon.
"I wanted to be able to play with the kids, get out and run around," she said.
"Harry, my eldest, loves basketball. I wanted to be able to rebound for him and give myself the best chance to stay fit and healthy.
"I made that commitment to the kids and myself."
Jackson was still uncertain until training camp, shortly before the 2023/24 season.
Signing on with the Flyers would mean being based in Melbourne, more than three hours away from her home in Albury.
For a single mother, it was not an easy call, even with "incredible" support from Basketball Australia and her parents.
"Mum guilt is real. It's probably the realest thing I've ever had to deal with," she said.
"I've dealt with anxiety, but becoming a parent is different because everything is about my kids.
"Now that I've started playing again and had this incredible two and a half years, the kids have had to sacrifice so much, and they shouldn't have to at that age."
Jackson, one of two Australians in the basketball hall of fame, said immediately after the Opals qualified for this year's Paris Olympics that she would not join them at the Games for a fifth time, but told ABC Sport Daily the final decision would be made with her kids.
"It's a really personal decision," she said.
"I don't think I can say I'm going to play if they don't want me to. It's a really hard one.
"When they leave me, when I have to go away for work or basketball, it's so hard. It really breaks my heart.
"It's horrible. We don't want to be away from each other."
Jackson retired in 2016, shortly before the Rio Olympics, and missed the Tokyo Games in 2021 before making her WNBL comeback a year later.
She won three silver medals and a bronze with the Opals in Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London respectively.
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