Rita Panahi: Double standards everywhere in Liz Cambage race saga

It is a shameful double standard that until this week sporting officials and the media went out of their way to protect Liz Cambage despite her vile slur.

Liz Cambage has really done it now.

Not only has she been exposed as a race-baiter and hypocrite – who marches with BLM and maligns Australia as irredeemably racist but then uses a vile slur against Nigerian players -but she’s also managed to upset the world’s most agreeable man, Andrew Gaze.

The doyen of Australian basketball was irate when speaking about the latest controversy to embroil the erratic WNBA player calling her behaviour ‘disgusting’ and backing up former NBA star Andrew Bogut who revealed that the “go back to your Third World country” insult delivered to Nigerian nationals was only the PG version of what was actually said.

“There are other versions that were far more offensive … my understanding is there is even more to it and more disgusting than what was actually said,” Gaze said.

Bogut believes that the Nigerians have a tape of the incident and that may be partly why Cambage withdrew from the Olympics last year.

“Nigeria have all of this tape,” Bogut told me. “This scrimmage was recorded … and the only reason they (officials) acted, I believe, was because the tape existed.”

Australian basketball player Liz Cambage used a vile slur against Nigerian players.

Bogut said the Nigerian team were offended by the “somewhat cover up” and the failure of officials to properly discipline Cambage.

Put to one side the hypocrisy of a race-obsessed athlete engaging in racism herself and consider the double standards of sporting officials and the media.

Rather than hold Cambage accountable, like they would a footballer who had used racially charged language, they went out of their way to protect the star athlete.

“There was a bit of protection racket going on because you want your best player on the court, if she was the 8th, 9th or 10th woman on the team she would’ve been cut a long time ago,” Bogut explained.

When Adelaide Crows forward Taylor Walker made a racist comment as a spectator at a SANFL game in 2021, he was named and shamed and despite repeated apologies fined $20,000 and suspended for six weeks.

What Cambage said to members of the Nigerian women’s basketball team circulated widely in the sporting world and yet she was allowed to set the narrative about her departure from the Opals.

Andrew Bogut revealed that the insult delivered to Nigerian nationals was only the PG version of what was actually said.

Cambage managed to upset the world’s most agreeable man, Andrew Gaze. Picture: Brett Costello

Whether it was covered up purely for Cambage’s benefit or perhaps because Basketball Australia hoped she would one day return to the team is not clear.

As Gaze said on Monday “there are not too many 6 foot 10 girls running around”.

Certainly there are very few who are as hypersensitive about race.

“The irony in all this is she would be protesting herself right now if anyone else said anything close to what she said,” Bogut said.

Cambage marched with neo-Marxist group BLM in Australia in 2020 and led chants screaming “no justice, no peace”.

She has regularly railed against ‘racist’ Australia, and last year she even attacked a promotional shot released by the Australian Olympic Committee for not being racially diverse.

“If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times,” Cambage posted on social media. “HOW AM I MEANT TO REPRESENT A COUNTRY THAT DOESN’T EVEN REPRESENT ME #WhiteWashedAustralia.”

The image did in fact feature an Indigenous athlete, Maurice Longbottom.

The reality is that Cambage would’ve likely got away with her racist slur if she hadn’t bragged about how much better she has it in the US where she’s “protected” and “supported” like she “never” was in Australia.

Bagging players and officials who have covered up your transgressions was not the smartest move.