Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer continues his series looking for theme songs for various figures in the Seattle sports scene today with a look at Lauren Jackson.
His top choice was Proud Mary by Tina Turner, a choice apparently made by Jackson herself.
The Brewery | Theme Song: Pondering the right music for ... Lauren Jackson | Seattle Times Newspaper
During an interview with WNBA.com, Jackson listed this Tina Turner song as her favorite karaoke jam. It could easily translate into theme music.The song is a lot like Jackson's game. It's very smooth at the beginning, and then it transitions into an electric bundle of energy and emotion. That's exactly the way I think Jackson plays.
That definitely works.
But when I think about why Jackson won the MVP -- and why she should almost certainly be MVP if the Storm sweep the Dream tonight -- I'm forced to betray my mid-90's Westside sensibilities and look East to Method Man's "Release Yo' Delf" (fitting for this historic season given that it came off Meth's best album).
The song maintains an emphasis on Jackson's passion, but the prize fight motif seems to capture more of what makes her the MVP this season.
As much as there is a smoothness to Jackson's game, her defense and rebounding are a large part of what makes her most valuable as well and in a physical series like this one she's also shown the gritty side of her game. Bethlehem Shoals' description of Jackson on FreeDarko.com could be easily miscontrued as a slight, but is apt for the more physical side of her game.
freedarko.com: She Loves You Too
I wrote about LJ's demented in-game appearance. She looks terrifying, but because she does so using make-up and dye, there's also an inclination to judge her as "looking like shit." These are not only traditional signifiers of femininity, or beauty, but ones that identify both as a process of alteration, or aspiration to a universal ideal. The ideal is unattainable; Jackson uses them to reify individuality, while at the same time trading in their connotations: grotesque, damaged, even crazy.
Throughout the entire season, teams have literally put players on the floor to do nothing but hit her and she's not only withstood the challenged and come out healthy on most occasions, but has also consistently come up big. Jackson has scored 26 points in each of the first two games of the WNBA Finals in completely different ways and the Dream have played her as well as anyone has this season.
That's the type of player that can have defenses petrified from the moment she first steps on the scene.
My peoples are you wit me where you at?