The WNBA announced today that Storm center Lauren Jackson will not play in Saturday’s midseason classic, WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun. Jackson and Atlanta forward Sancho Lyttle, who is also recovering from a concussion suffered the same day, were replaced on the WNBA roster by Washington Mystics teammates Lindsey Harding and Monique Currie.

Jackson traveled to Connecticut today and will participate in Stars at the Sun festivities.

The Australian National Team is also in Connecticut this week to practice and play an exhibition against the U.S. National Team on Sunday. Storm center Abby Bishop will train with and play for the Opals.

The Storm won’t know whether it will have All-Star center Lauren Jackson in the lineup for Tuesday’s Kids Day matchup against the New York Liberty (12:00 p.m., 1150 AM KKNW, LiveAccess, ) until after Jackson is evaluated by a doctor this evening. Jackson suffered a concussion early in Saturday’s 75-62 win at Los Angeles.

“She’s doing fine,” said Storm Head Coach Brian Agler. “She’s improved a lot since Saturday. We’re going to let it play out, but I can just tell you we’ll take the cautious side of things in terms of what our final decision is based on what we hear today from the doctor.”

Jackson, who confirmed that she’s feeling better when she met with the media after practice, said she’s been laying low since the team returned to Seattle. The Storm had Sunday off, and Jackson did not participate in Monday’s session.

The concussion was not diagnosed until after the game. Jackson, who started quickly with 13 first-quarter points, had just seven points on 1-of-8 shooting the rest of the way as symptoms may have started to appear.

“When she came out, I went down and asked her,” Agler said. “She looked me in the eye and said, ‘I’m doing good.’ She probably was at that time. As the game wore on, I think things started to occur that made her uncomfortable. I think that showed in her play a little bit.”

After Jackson left for good late in the game and complained of her condition, she was met in the locker room by two doctors who diagnosed the concussion. Jackson was also evaluated on Sunday prior to tonight’s check-up.

Agler said he’s already considered how the Storm might play Tuesday if Jackson is in fact unavailable.

“We’ve done it so much that you always have to think about that,” he said. “Especially after going through a couple of games without Sue (Bird), you always think if certain things happen, how you’re going to react to that and respond to it and adjust. If that happened, Le’coe (Willingham) would start, but we would have to use Jana (Veselá) a little bit more creatively in terms of maybe who she defends and things like that. We’re looking for ways to get her more playing time.”

The Storm’s Lauren Jackson has been nominated for Best WNBA Player in next month’s annual ESPY Awards. Indiana’s Tamika Catchings, San Antonio’s Becky Hammon, Los Angeles forward Candace Parker and Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi round out the nominees.  Previously, Jackson won the ESPY in 2004, 2005 and 2008 (each time honoring the preceding WNBA season).

Jackson and Parker are the only two of the five players who have ever won the Best WNBA Player ESPY that remain active. The other three past recipients are Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes.

Fan voting for the ESPY Awards is open through July 10, so make sure to cast your vote for LJ. The ESPY Awards will air live on ESPN on Wednesday, July 14 at 6 p.m. PDT.

Jet-lagged and fatigued but fortified by coffee, Lauren Jackson was on the bench for Sunday’s preseason win over the Phoenix Mercury after arriving in Seattle on Saturday night.

“I got to sleep at about 5 o’clock this morning,” Jackson told reporters before the game while watching her teammates warm up. “Brian (Agler) was nice enough to say, ‘You don’t have to get up at 7 o’clock and come to shootaround today,’ so that was lovely of him. I slept about five hours. I’m still a bit dazed and confused. I feel good. I’m really excited to be back. I just had the best time at home. All good things come to an end, so it’s time to start a new chapter here in Seattle.”

Instead of trying to make time to come home between her seasons overseas, Jackson was able to spend her entire offseason in her native Australia, returning to the WNBL to win another championship with the Canberra Capitals. The experience was a positive that came out of a frustrating injury – the stress fracture in her lower back that ended Jackson’s 2009 WNBA season.

“The injury, maybe it was a blessing in disguise for me,” she said. “Not going back to Russia, being able to play in Australia and being able to take care of me for the last six months, it’s just been the best thing for me.”

First, there was the matter of rehabbing and getting back into shape. Jackson was ordered to rest for three months to give the stress fracture time to heal, and wasn’t allowed to run until December. She credits the medical staff at her old stomping ground, the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, for helping her recover.

“I think I’m more in shape now than I was before,” she said. “I had all the resources there to get me going. It was easy to do it there because I had the support of all my old friends and people that I really, really trust. I wouldn’t have been able to come back the way I did without the people at the AIS.”

Jackson now has a clean bill of health.

“Once you’ve fractured your back, it’s always going to be achy,” she explained, “but they’ve said to me it’s very unlikely that it will happen again. I remember the first day after the first game I came back and played, it was a little achy, but not having that pain that I had when I was playing here those last few games, it was unbelievable – that’s one thing that I wish to never experience again. Then going through the season, I felt so good. Honestly, when it happened, I didn’t know if I would ever feel great again because it was one of those things where it was such a horrible pain.”

Since the WNBL season ended in March, Jackson has had time off before last week’s training camp with the Australian National Team in preparation for the World Championship this fall. Jackson described the camp, which featured two three-hour sessions a day led by Opals Head Coach Carrie Graf (a former Storm assistant), as “intense.” She did not participate in all the on-court work, sitting out at times in the name of self-preservation with an eye toward Storm training camp.

At the conclusion of Opals camp, it was time to say goodbye to family and friends and head to Seattle.

“It was sad leaving,” Jackson said. “Leaving my mum and dad at the airport yesterday, I was teary-eyed.”

But Jackson knows she has big things to look forward to with the Storm.

“I heard a couple of things and then (Director of Basketball Operations) Missy (Bequette) picked me up from the airport last night and filled me in,” she said. It sounds good. Everyone’s really excited. She said it was one of the best Storm camps ever. I think it’s going to be a great year.”

Hopefully you’ve already seen that Lauren Jackson re-signed with the Storm today and read the feature story based on our exclusive interview with LJ. You can use this thread to share your reaction on this happy day.