Rickea Jackson's basketball journey includes a 'villain origin story' and a rise among WNBA rookies

Rickea Jackson never wanted to touch a basketball.

Growing up, she watched her two older brothers play and saw her mom coach. Jackson knew that her mother played collegiately at Kansas, but she believed basketball wasn’t meant for her.

“I felt like basketball was like a boy sport. I thought it was icky. I thought I’d never touch a basketball,” Jackson told Yahoo Sports.

She was content with watching from the sideline and supporting her family. That was, until her brothers issued a challenge.

“You suck at basketball,” they’d tell Jackson.

Her response?

“Well, I don’t play, but if I did play, I’d be better than you!”

From that point on, Jackson began developing her skills. That eventually led her to become a five-star recruit out of high school, a standout collegiate star at Mississippi State and Tennessee, and the No. 4 pick by the Los Angeles Sparks in the star-studded 2024 WNBA Draft.

Players like the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark and the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese have dominated on the court and in the headlines. But developing below the surface of WNBA stardom is Jackson, whose rise may not be as meteoric as those two, but it surely is coming all the same.

Through it all, she remembers the initial challenge from her brothers that fueled her basketball career.

"And look at me, I’m better than them," she said. "That’s really my origin story, my villain origin story.”

Jackson forced to adjust quickly to WNBA demands

Eleven days.

That’s how long Jackson had from being drafted to beginning training camp to get acclimated with a new system, according to Sparks guard Kia Nurse. Typically, that training period is two weeks.

Immediately, Jackson was thrown a curveball. Due to forward Azurá Stevens recovering from an arm injury suffered in the offseason while playing in China, Jackson had to switch from playing the 3, which she played in high school and college, to playing primarily the 4.

“So you get into the season, you have an opportunity with everyone out to get into the starting lineup, but at the 4,” Sparks head coach Curt Miller said. “Now she’s completely flip-flopped as the season started with her playing predominately 3 and less 4. She’s really handled that well with everything thrown at her and what’s asked of her.”

Something that wasn’t just asked of Jackson, but expected of her, was to be a reliable scoring option. Coming out of college, she averaged 20 points per game at Tennessee and was known as one of the best scorers in the country. Early on in the training camp and in moments to begin the season, the offensive skills that Jackson showed didn’t immediately materialize.

“For Rickea, I think it’s just been a matter of getting a comfort level out on the floor,” Nurse told Yahoo Sports. “For a lot of these games, it was her first time seeing a lot of these players defensively and playing against some of the most talented players in the world.”

In Jackson’s first regular-season contest, she scored seven points shooting 3-for-10 from the field. The following game, she scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and made both of her 3-pointers. That pattern of single-digit scoring to double digits and back continued for the first month of the season.

Compare that to Clark, who admittedly had missteps in her opening month as well but had multiple 20-point and 30-point outbursts in the same span. Reese during that period had only two games scoring less than double figures and began her historic streak of 15 consecutive double-doubles.

Although Jackson hasn’t etched her name in the history books yet, Sparks assistant coach Nola Henry says that all Jackson needs is time to fully display her gifts as a player.

“I think we all knew she could score coming out of the draft,” Henry told Yahoo Sports. “I think she’s becoming more of a confident scorer where she’s able to understand our offense better and pick her spots because she knows she can be aggressive.”

After the first month of the season, Jackson scored in double-figures 10 times, including a career high of 23 points. That type of offensive potential is what the Sparks were looking for when drafting Jackson.

Jackson is currently averaging 11.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists as of the Olympic/All-Star break. Her scoring average is the third-highest among rookies and her rebounding is fifth-best.

Amid a poor Sparks season, and Cameron Brink's absence, what can Jackson do to improve?

Despite the relative success individually, the Sparks have struggled throughout the season. At the break, L.A. is 6-18 and has lost 11 of its past 13 games. The Sparks’ road doesn’t get easier as they face the New York Liberty, the best team in the league record-wise, twice in two weeks, along with other playoff teams, such as the Las Vegas Aces and the Connecticut Sun.

Part of the reason the Sparks have struggled is because they’ve been missing rookie Cameron Brink since June 18. Brink, who was drafted ahead of Jackson with the No. 2 pick in April, tore her ACL against the Sun and will miss the rest of her rookie year.

Brink was an instant impact player, specifically on the defensive end. Before she went down, she was averaging over two blocks a game and was firmly in the defensive player of the year conversation.

Jackson got much more responsibility thrown on her plate in the starting lineup. Brink added seven points a night, with some of the performances Jackson had, she more than made up for the lost production.

While offensively Jackson has always had promise at the professional level, one aspect of her game that she has been self-critical of is her defense. When asked about what she needs to improve before the end of her rookie season, she cited defense as No. 1 on her list.

“I really feel like with my length, my size, and my speed, I can be one of the great defenders,” Jackson said. “But it’s just something that I gotta continue to work at.”

Miller also agrees that Jackson can improve on that side of the ball, but with the right tutelage and work ethic, she can be one of those “great defenders.”

“Her biggest growth area still is her defense,” Miller said. “Analytically, it's obvious that at times she’s struggled at the defensive end early here in her rookie year. But you see flashes of it. We’re going to keep investing in film with her, we’re going to keep investing opportunities. A lot of growth [is needed] for her defensively, but as she continues to step up in that role, her minutes will continue to increase.”

It is clear to all that have seen her play that Jackson is talented and deserves to not only be in this league, but can be one of the future stars in the game for years to come.

“I think she has the ability to be really great in this league for a number of different reasons,” Nurse said. “We’re seeing it already on the offensive end with her versatility and her ability to play that 3 [or] 4 position and attack different matchups. And then, defensively, her ability to move and switch with the versatility there as well with her size and length. It’s been fascinating.”