Basketball On The Internet.

LAUREN Jackson quietly undergoing hip surgery today on top of her knee rehabilitation delays may finally be signalling the inevitable changing of the Opals guard.

LJ’s absence from the Opals in Turkey at the FIBA World Championship will be her first since she cracked the Australian team for the 1998 worlds.

That’s four World Championships (1998-2002-06-10) and four Olympics (2000-04-08-12) in succession for our greatest woman basketball player.

Can she make it back for Rio in 2016 and what role would she be playing at 35?

I wouldn’t rule out she will have a role to play – just look at Kristi Harrower at the London Olympics.

But since London, she has been in the wars with injury.

And since London, three starters – Jackson, Harrower and Jenni Screen – are no longer Opals, the latter two through international retirements.

Throw in triple WNBL-MVP and Opals stalwart Suzy Batkovic, who was unavailable for the worlds, and that’s a huge chunk of experience gone and quite the new-look team for rookie coach Brendan Joyce.

Bear in mind, lack of communication and compassion also led Abby Bishop out the door, while Jenna O’Hea made an unusual decision to skip the worlds, forcing changes.

With any luck, 2006 World Champion Opals Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips will rejoin this team for its tilt at Gold in Turkey later this month.

But unmistakeably a golden age for Australian women’s basketball – which followed a previous period of success without medalling – is coming to a close.

It was started by Tom Maher who took the Opals into World Championship semi finals and a Bronze Medal playoff in 1994, then to medals in 1996, 1998 and 2000 before handing the baton to Jan Stirling.

She then took the team to medals in 2002-04 before the ultimate, winning Gold at the 2006 World Championship and putting Australia at the top of the tree for its first and only time.

Stirling’s Opals claimed Silver in 2008, their Gold bid undermined when Penny Taylor – MVP of the 2006 Worlds – suffered a shocking ankle injury during the quarter finals.

To beat USA, everything has to be going right. It can't be when one of your two best players is hobbled.

Stirling passed the baton on to Carrie Graf who stumbled at the 2010 worlds, the Opals slipping to fifth, then got it sufficiently right in London to win a Bronze.

The golden era had peaked and we were coming down the other side of the mountain.

Now Joyce has to stall that slight slippage and renew the Opals again back to previous highs and beyond if he can and if the talent is good enough.

Jackson’s absence was inevitable at some point.

It is far too early to tell whether her Opals career is done or on hold.

But in the meantime, the new breed of Liz Cambage and Co. have the door open to forge their own history and maybe create a “platinum era”.

Never let it be said Australian basketball didn’t rise to a challenge.

HOW we reported Lauren’s World Championship withdrawal today. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/opals-superstar-lauren-jackson-ruled-out-through-injury-of-aussie-womens-assault-on-fiba-world-championship-in-turkey/story-fnii09gt-1227045151017