Australian basketball player Lauren Jackson has been named the 2010 WNBA Most Valuable Player for the third time.
Jackson was a key figure in the Seattle Storm side that won 28 of 34 regular season games and won all 17 home games, the first time a WNBA side has achieved the feat.
Jackson received 323 points from a panel of writers and broadcasters, ahead of Indiana Fever's Tamika Catchings with 262 and New York Liberty's Cappie Pondexter who scored 207 points.
"I'm just really happy," Jackson said, before paying tribute to her team-mates.
"I think this is a testament to my team-mates. I would never have gotten it if we hadn't achieved so much as a team."
What makes Jackson's achievement so remarkable is her terrible injury run in recent years.
Her last two seasons have been cut short with injury but Jackson says her problems have only made her more determined.
"Sometimes I think that after the last 24 months I've had, a lot of people wrote me off and maybe I wrote myself off," Jackson said.
"Through the last 24 months I've had, it's awesome. It caps off this period where I've had to try really hard to get back where I was and I've had to work really hard."
"It's a tremendous balance of who Lauren is and what she can do," Storm head coach Brian Agler said.
"I think she helps bring the best out of her team-mates as well. The respect she gains from opponents really lets her team-mates play to their strengths."
Jackson won't have any time to celebrate though with her Storm side facing the Phoenix Mercury in a three-game playoff series on Thursday night.
She started all 32 games in which she played and finished averaging 20.5 points per game and 8.3 rebounds.
She previously won the award in 2003 and 2007 and will receive US$15,000 and a specially-designed trophy from Tiffany & Co. for her efforts.