Retirement hasn't slowed down Lauren Jackson with lessons learned by the basketball great shaping the future of the WNBL and female participation in the sport around Australia.
The first Australian athlete to win a medal in five Olympics when the Opals took bronze in Paris last year, Jackson's life has only got busier despite undergoing a knee replacement just after the Games.
She was earlier this month appointed as a special advisor to the WNBL, which will change ownership in April with a consortium led by NBL owner Larry Kestelman and Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm taking a controlling stake.
It was announced on Tuesday the She Hoops program, that Jackson created and oversees in her Head of Women role at Basketball Australia, received almost $1 million in federal funding.
"It's a pretty extensive program that we're running so it's participation camps nationally ... in regional and remote areas so we're going to places like Geraldton, Tennant Creek, Devonport - places that aren't traditionally on the list of places that we go to," the 43-year-old told AAP.
"We're running a mentoring program which is scalable so now we're going to be working with a lot more people as opposed to just 20 or 30 every couple of months that we do now.
"We're offering scholarships to upskill and get women involved in coaching and officiating and keep them in the sport."
The WNBL is looking to tap into the wealth of experience of Jackson, also a mother of two who coaches one of her young son's teams.
A former WNBA superstar, Jackson has won seven WNBL titles and four MVP awards but also played in leagues in South Korea, Russia, Spain and China.
Signalling its intent to take the sport to a new level, the WNBL, which begin top-four finals this weekend, has appointed a new CEO in commercial heavyweight Jennie Sager.
"Obviously my experience in basketball, number one as an athlete number two as an administrator, I've coached, officiated at different levels of the sport so I've seen the sport from all different levels and I've also played in all the different leagues around the world," Jackson said of her value in the position.
"I think my skill set and what I can offer in terms of an advisory permission is pretty unique."
But she felt it was a two-way street.
"For me personally, I'm sitting in conversations about operating models and commercialising the league again so it's an incredible learning opportunity.
"Sitting in a room with Robyn Denholm, it's a pretty special opportunity for me to learn from someone of her calibre and who's been able to work in rooms of very powerful men.
"It's pretty impressive like to be able to learn from her and see how she handles different situations but then also contributing, it's amazing."
