The comeback decision: Why a GOAT like Lauren Jackson shouldn't be afraid to play again

Lauren Jackson and Tom Brady met at the greatest of all time intersection this week, weighing up the risks and rewards of comebacks and retirements.

Many have been there before. Not necessarily at the corner of GOAT St, but they're not the first and they won't be the last athletes to be torn about their playing futures.

Both in their 40s, Jackson and Brady have experienced very different journeys over the past 20 years and their respective announcements this week restarted one career and ended another. They both asked themselves the same question. Will this tarnish my legacy?

Brady, the NFL legend, was one of the lucky ones. He got to go out on his terms, choosing when to retire rather than being told and his body allowing him to do so despite being 44 years old. Brady left on top, falling three games short of another Super Bowl title. Not that it mattered - he'd already won seven.

Jackson, the Canberra Capitals great, wasn't afforded the same luxury. Her body was broken, her mind was fried and basketball became a job rather than her passion when she tearfully retired in 2016, a knee injury robbing her of a chance to become a five-time Olympian.

Six years later she's back, although not quite at the same level as when she was at the peak of her powers in Australia, Europe, the United States and Asia.

Her starting point will be the NBL1, the second-tier competition to the WNBL and lightyears away from a potential World Cup return at the end of the year.

But all comebacks - whether they're fairytales or nightmares - have to start somewhere, and the Australian Opals will be keeping a close eye on the 40-year-old's basketball second coming.

For now Jackson has moved to temper Opals expectations by saying it's not on her radar, but at some point the competitive beast within will rear its head.

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Her return is starting how most begin. A kick at the park with a few mates, a refreshing swim to loosen up or a game of touch on a Monday night.

Jackson is not alone. Think Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, Geoff Huegill, George Foreman or Clyde Rathbone.

We've all been there before. That extra drink at the pub, the second piece of cake (some decisions are tougher than others) ... you don't have to be an athlete to be lured into the "one more, it'll be fine" mindset.

There is, of course, more at stake when you're putting the reputation on the line.

Rarely do we see athletes recapture what made them great, but Rathbone did get within five metres of the ultimate fairytale when he was dragged down just short of a grand-final winning try for the ACT Brumbies in 2013.

"The one thing that I feel I have now that makes this game different is perspective," Rathbone said before his comeback season.

"Before my goals were so rugby-orientated that if I didn't achieve them, I was devastated. Now I've redefined what success is."

Jordan wasn't the Air Jordan we knew in his prime. Thorpe was still the Thorpedo, just not as fast and missed selection for the 2012 Olympic Games.

"I don't regret giving this a go. Compared to how I've raced before, how I've competed and the success that I've had, this does look like doom ... But I'm glad I was willing to put myself out there to give this a shot," Thorpe said at the time.

There's always more to the comeback than meets the eye. For Rathbone it was a chance to test himself again after injury-forced retirement, then a battle with depression. For Thorpe it was about seeing if he was still good enough after initially retiring as a 24-year-old.

For Jackson it's about reclaiming something that was taken away from her. The twilight of her career was dominated by pain rather than success.

Medicinal cannabis has helped her overcome some of that pain and she wants to see if her body can still handle it.

But her reputation? It's hardly on the line. Jackson will still be LJ, Australia's greatest basketballer. At least in the short-term. Winning or losing at the NBL1 level will be a couple of pages down the back of Jackson's autobiography if she ever updates it.

The Opals return - which all parties are playing down at the moment - looms as the greater threat.

Jackson carried the Opals for years, shouldering expectation and pressure from her teenage years to the end, where she could no longer do what she knew she was capable of.

Jackson won't be the feisty teenager or the superstar leader if she does pursue an Opals opportunity. The coaches (and presumably Jackson) will have to decide if her guidance and presence could be the difference between a medal and being bundled out of the tournament.

LJ won't be the LJ we used to see, but she may be what the Opals need.

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