Liz Cambage: Complete journey of Australian basketball star
Undoubtedly one of Australian basketball’s best ever talents, Liz Cambage has always been as daring off the court as on it. This is the story of one of Australia’s most intriguing athletes.
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At 203cm Liz Cambage makes a bold statement whenever she walks in a room.
Undoubtedly one of Australian basketball’s best ever talents, Cambage has always been as daring off the court as on it.
From raunchy photo shoots to trash talking other stars, from taking a stand on racism to being at the centre of a storm, Cambage has made a habit of creating headlines since she burst on the scene.
This is the story of her journey.
EARLY LIFE
Elizabeth Folake Cambage was born on August 18, 1991 in London to a Nigerian father and Australian mother, Julie.
Her parents split when Cambage was three-months-old and moved to Australia with her mother.
The family first moved to Eden, NSW before shifting to Melbourne when Cambage was 10, and then the Mornington Peninsula.
By the age of 10 Cambage was 183cm tall and teased by Padua College classmates – prompting her mother to suggest she join a basketball team in order to make friends.
“I guess I didn’t really understand what the kids were saying to me,” Cambage said of her taunts in the Hoop Dreams Down Under book in 2021.
“Also, why they’d tell me that they didn’t want to hang out with me because I looked dirty.
“I never really understood things like that until I moved to America, where people of colour are really embraced and put to the forefront.
“In the States is when I learnt about racism and I started to learn and embrace who I was.”
Cambage also spoke of her mother’s influence.
“She really taught me not to take bull***t from anyone and to do what I want to do in life and be who I want to be,” Cambage said.
She was 196cm tall by age 14, making her sporting pathway clear.
EARLY BASKETBALL FORAYS
Progressing through the junior ranks at the Dandenong Rangers, Cambage joined the club’s WNBL team for the 2007/08 season.
That progression was in part thanks to her scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport in 2007, which led to a switch to the AIS side in the WNBL.
However she truly made a name for herself when Cambage played centre for the under-20 Australian team at the 2009 national championships.
So impressive was her performance that she was hailed as the next Lauren Jackson, a forecast in part thanks to her towering height.
After a couple of seasons in the WNBL bigger things awaited, though Cambage did return to the league with the Southside Flyers for the 2020–21 campaign.
BECOMING A STAR
With her reputation growing Cambage joined WNBA outfit Tulsa Shock in 2011, though she caused a stir by insisting she did not want to play for the team that drafted her.
“I don’t want to play at Tulsa, I’ve made that clear. They want to make me a franchise player, but I’m not going to the WNBA for that. I’m going there to learn and improve my game. But what can you do?”
Further drama was to follow as Cambage refused to return to the club after the 2012 Summer Olympics, citing exhaustion.
Cambage, though, returned to play for the Shock for the 2013 season, in what would turn out to be her last stint in the league for five years.
In June 2012 Cambage signed with Chinese club Zheijang Chouzhou for a reported salary of about $400,000.
That deal made her one of the highest-paid female basketballers in the world.
Cambage, though, created more headlines in March 2019 when in a newspaper article she claimed that, due to injury, she had not been paid since September 2018.
After five years away Cambage returned to the WNBA in 2018 with the Dallas Wings.
Within months she underlined her ability by notching a WNBA-record 53 points in a game against New York.
In May 2019 Cambage was on the move again when traded to the Las Vegas Aces.
After another starring campaign, Cambage opted to sit out the 2020/21 season due to health concerns amid the Covid pandemic.
Cambage signed with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2022 but the move was short-lived.
On August 15 she announced her retirement from the WNBA.
In March 2023 Cambage announced she had signed with the Israeli club Maccabi Bnot Ashdod, her first appearance in a European league.
NATIONAL CAREER
After helping Australia to a series of strong results in underage grades, Cambage’s ascent to the senior national squad was inevitable.
She made her debut against China in 2009 and over the coming seasons became a key cog in the Opals starting side.
At the 2012 London Olympics Cambage created headlines with her one-handed dunk in a 70-66 victory over Russia, as Australia went on to claim bronze.
Ahead of the 2014 World Championships Cambage ruptured her Achilles tendon, causing her to miss eight months of action.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics Cambage was the leading scorer and rebounder for the Opals.
In 2018 her efforts helped Australia take gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
In August 2023 Cambage claimed she was in talks to join the Nigerian national team, two years after her physical and verbal altercation with the African nation.
However, the centre’s claims were brutally shut down by Nigerian guard Promise Amukamara.
I’m sorry but this is false. Lol,” Amukamara tweeted in response to Cambage’s video interview with the Bleacher Report.
Liz Cambage says she’s in talks to leave the Australian team to represent Nigeria in the Olympics.
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 7, 2023
She maintains she did not use a racial slur towards the Nigerian team during a scrimmage ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics
(via Taylor Rooks X) pic.twitter.com/8VOWEMtUzH
OFF THE COURT
Never one to stay quiet, 203cm Cambage has been the face of Bonds, happily flaunting her curves for a campaign in 2019.
“Being a person who really stands for diversity, this call really meant a lot to me,” Cambage said at the time.
“Growing up I never had anyone I could relate to, and so the more diversity we have is so important not just for girls but for boys too who struggle with body image.”
In April 2020 she graced the cover of Elle Australia and 12 months earlier was featured in ESPN’s Body Issue.
In 2021 Cambage posted a video of herself modelling Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie.
Cambage wrote on Instagram: “lookin like a doll, BUT YOU CANT PLAY ME”.
Through it all Cambage’s love life has remained relatively private.
She had an on-again off-again relationship with fellow athlete Alex Lee, ending in 2014.
Cambage was in recent years linked to Canadian rapper Drake, featuring in some of his lyrics and being in photos shared on social media.
CONTROVERSIES
‘Little white man’
Cambage engaged in a war of words with Connecticut Sun coach Curt Miller in May 2021 after he had pleaded for a foul against her during a game.
Miller gestured that oversized Cambage should have been fouled, a claim that sparked the basketballer to reply on Instagram.
“Something went down in today’s game, and I need to speak on it,” she posted.
“Because if there’s one thing about me, I will never let a man disrespect me, ever, especially a little white one …”
While Cambage was labelled by some as racist, Miller would later apologise for his gesture.
‘Contract divorce’
Amid claimed Cambage “quit” on her Sparks teammates, the player and club agreed to a “contract divorce” in July 2022.
The short-lived stay was plagued with rumours of issues, culminating in Cambage leaving after a loss and saying: “I can’t do this anymore. Best of luck to you guys.”
“It is with support that we share Liz Cambage’s decision to terminate her contract with the organization,” Sparks managing partner Eric Holoman said of the “divorce”.
“We want what’s best for Liz and have agreed to part ways amicably.”
‘Lack of diversity’ photo shoot
The towering basketball star created headlines in May 2021 when she called out the lack of diversity in a pre-Games photo shoot for the Australian Olympic Committee’s underwear sponsor.
Cambage accused the AOC of “whitewashing” just ahead of the planned launch of their Reconciliation Action Plan.
“If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times, how am I meant to represent a country that doesn’t even represent me. Australia, wake the f**k up,” Cambage said on Instagram.
The AOC may not have liked Cambage’s stinging delivery that went out to her 77,000-plus followers but they conceded there was some merit in her comments, prompting them to apologise and declare it intends to include more diverse voices in the future.
In an interview for the book, Hoop Dreams Down Under, Cambage spoke candidly about why she’s loud and brash.
“Because when I make noise and speak on issues, I’m not fighting for me,” said Cambage. “I’m fighting for all of us. I’m fighting for our future.”
‘How dare you say Black Lives Matter’
Cambage in June 2020 issued a sternly-worded message ahead of planned rallies across Australia demanding the end of black deaths in custody.
The Opals centre posted to Instagram, calling out those she claimed were fake allies of the cause.
“We have blood all over our hands, Australia,” Cambage said in the Instagram story.
“We are covered in it. And you don’t even understand why. How dare people say Black Lives Matter. How f---ing dare you people say that when we have the darkest, most twisted, most disgusting past when it comes to Indigenous Australians and the treatment of Indigenous Australians.
“How dare you Australia. How dare you. How dare you focus your attention on America.”
She continued: “And if you really care about black lives, I’ll see you on Saturday.”
“Because you can post and pretend all you want right here, but until I see you guys out in the streets being real-a** allies, you ain’t f***ing s**t.”
Alongside the post, she wrote: “I SAID WHAT I SAID. PULL UP OR SHUT UP AUSTRALIA.”
Training camp incident
Former Opals captain Jenna O’Hea and Boomers great Andrew Gaze were among those to claim Cambage would never play for Australia again after a bitter split from the national team in 2021.
Cambage missed Australia’s Olympic campaign in Tokyo, pulling out of the squad citing mental health reasons following alleged incidents during a training camp.
As revealed in a News Corp investigation, during a warm-up game Cambage claimed she was hit in the face and pushed to the ground at the start of the second quarter by Nigerian centre Victoria Macaulay in retaliation to an “unintentional” foul that was a clear elbow.
However, a number of Opals sources categorically denied Cambage’s claim.
Instead, they said a time-out was called during which Cambage called out to the Nigerian team to “go back to your third world country”.
According to witnesses Cambage returned the game and that’s when she slapped another Nigerian player in the face. The player responded by king hitting the Australian centre from behind with a closed fist.
It was reported that Cambage then unloaded a barrage of verbal abuse on the Nigerian players, including referring to the Africans as “monkeys”, a claim which Cambage denied.
In July 2021 Cambage called out “lies” that had surrounded her withdrawal, saying she was at “breaking point” with her mental health before deciding to pull the pin.
“I’m pretty annoyed at all the fake news and the lies I’m seeing floating around in news articles and being shown and being asked about,” she said in an Instagram video at the time.
“Yeah, things got heated in the Nigeria game. There was a physical altercation and there were words exchanged but I’m hearing things that aren’t true at all, flying around from people in Australia and America which is crazy.”
In May 2022 Cambage hit out at the Opals, telling the ABC she “never” felt supported and protected while in the national team.
O’Hea, though, defended her position, while Gaze told SEN radio: “The thing that really, really grates at me is when she makes the comments to say she feels supported in Los Angeles at a level that wasn’t there with the Australian team; and the suggestion that she was never supported by Australia, the Opals or Basketball Australia, that is highly offensive.”
Cambage later appeared to respond, tweeting: “The truth will always come to light, and it ain’t even dawn yet.”
Cambage apologised to the Nigerian team a day after the fiery clash, but it was not well received by all, with one player saying: “I don’t think it was a sincere apology.”
An investigation by Basketball Australia saw Cambage issued with a formal reprimand and the Opals never recovered from her late withdrawal, as they bombed out of the Olympics in the quarter-finals.
In August 2023 new footage emerged of Cambage’s verbal and physical attacks.
Two videos were leaked to Twitter.
The first video clearly shows Cambage’s vicious elbow to the head of a Nigerian player – centre Victoria Macaulay - as revealed in this masthead’s exclusive investigation.
On-court ‘cheap shot’
Cambage hit the headlines in April 2024 when she took out two players with a “cheap shot” elbow and slap during ugly scenes in the WCBA Finals in China.
Cambage’s tarnished reputation copped another hit after she received two flagrant fouls, leading to her ejection while playing for the Sichuan Blue Whales against Inner Mongolia in Game 2 of the WCBA Finals.
The former Opals centre hit one rival player in the head with a stray slap before unleashing a shocking elbow to the head of another player.
Cambage’s second foul – a brutal elbow late in the fourth quarter – was particularly damaging and resulted in her ejection from the game.
The drama didn’t finish there.
Cambage motioned for the incident to be viewed on video, before a teammate escorted her off the court and not before she gave the referee an almighty spray.
Bogut battle
Andrew Bogut, the Australian men’s basketball great, has had a long-running duel with Cambage, mostly played out on social media.
After Cambage’s “whitewashing” claim Bogut hit back.
“There’s a lot of different factors that go into it, this is made out like it was a blatant effort to whitewash the photo, to make Australia look white,” he said.
“C’mon. Not in today’s day and age, you’d be an idiot if you’re running the AOC to do that, because you’re going to get blow ups.”
Cambage jumped on Twitter to respond: “Mr Bogut’s obsession with me so strange, it’s been like 10 years of you speaking on my name … if you want me just say that.”
Cambage posted a screenshot of her tweet to her Instagram story, with Mariah Carey’s song Obsessed playing over the top.
Bogut then responded with a crack of his own.
“Could you please not use all yellow emojis and use a more diverse range of emojis next time. Thanks!”
In the wake of Cambage’s exit from the 2021 Olympic training camp, Bogut chimed in again.
“Big difference when you publicly advocate for something and say it’s a huge problem in the world, then do that very thing,” he said.
Asked if he felt “vindicated”, Bogut replied: “Didn’t need to be. I knew the truth and trust the people who told me from the start.”
Despite it all in 2021 Bogut offered his support to Cambage during her mental health break.
Cambage in 2021 explained her approach to life.
“There are two people in this world. There are the people who have the balls to stand up and say something and make change; that’s me. That’s me. I was born for this,” she said.
“ … And then the second type of people in this world, that’s the people that are intimidated and scared and insecure, and hide behind fake profiles and talk s--t because you’re too scared to do anything. Too scared to take a stand for anything.
“But don’t worry, I gotcha. I’m out here talking my s--t with my big arse mouth, being a big old bitch and making change, baby. Making changes.”
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