Opals’ reveal full extent of Liz Cambage trauma after Olympics disaster

After the Opals sunk to a 21-year-low in a demoralising end to their campaign in Tokyo, one Liz Cambage question was on everyone’s lips.

The Opals had high hopes heading to Tokyo but one win from four games turned their Olympic dream into a nightmare.

A loss to Games debutant Belgium in the opening round followed by a cruel defeat to China left them needing a miracle win by 25 points over Puerto Rico in their final group game to stand a chance of reaching the knockout stage.

That miracle may have eventuated but there was no such repeat in the quarter-finals when Team USA hammered Australia 79-55, keeping our women’s basketball team to its lowest score since the Sydney Olympics 21 years ago.

The Aussies were dominated from the first quarter, coughing up possession and a 16-point deficit they were never able to recover from as the world’s best side chalked up another easy win to enhance its gold medal favouritism.

Ranked No. 2 in the world behind America, Australia was aiming for the gold medal match but fell horribly short. There were signs the campaign was in trouble before the Opals’ plane touched down in Tokyo as a Liz Cambage-sized controversy threatened to derail things before they even started.

Cambage is one of the best players in the world but in May she threatened to boycott the Games after taking offence to photos used to promote the Australian Olympic team, which she claimed did not represent the true diversity of Australia’s athletes.

She eventually backed down on that threat and agreed to take part. But then came reports of verbal abuse and a physical altercation during a private scrimmage with Nigeria at training camp in Las Vegas. There were also allegations Cambage had left the team’s bio-secure bubble to go out in Sin City – which she denied – and rumours Opals players were discussing kicking Cambage out because she was proving too disruptive.

Cambage withdrew before the team jetted off to Japan, citing mental health reasons and concerns she would not be happy living in a bubble for the entirety of the Olympics.

So, would her exclusion help team harmony or leave too big a hole on the court?

Would Cambage have helped or hindered in Tokyo? (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Opals: Losing Cambage ‘was really hard’

Opals players revealed afterwards just how big a toll the Cambage saga took on the team, saying adjusting to a new style of play without her proved too tough an ask.

“It was really hard,” Marianna Tolo said. “Especially being so close to the Olympics, we didn’t have much time to adjust.

“I think that was the biggest thing. We’re used to playing with her and playing a certain way and then finding our feet after that didn’t feel as comfortable.”

Leilani Mitchell added: “We didn’t have a good preparation.

“Just with the drama and things that were happening leading into it and obviously Liz, who is arguably the best post player in the world, all of a sudden she’s not here with us where we’ve built our system around her.

“Obviously it was a lot of adjusting we had to make in a few days, and it didn’t really work out for us.”

Coach Sandy Brondello also weighed in, saying losing Cambage “wasn’t easy”.

“Liz, she’s one of the best players in the world,” Brondello said. “We took a big player out, and we’ve just got to find the best way that we can play and learn from every experience we have moving forward.”

The Opals never stood a chance.

Nightmare campaign raises awkward Cambage question

One player does not make a winning team in any sport but it sure doesn’t hurt. Australian basketball great Andrew Bogut said on his podcast before the Games Cambage’s absence was a “huge” loss because she’s the best player on the national team, and one of the best in the world.

An unhappy team rarely performs well so if there’s a rift between Cambage and the rest of the Opals, there’s no guarantee she would have helped in Tokyo. The tournament could have gone just as badly, if not worse.

But shock losses to lower-ranked Belgium and China raise the question – would the results have been different had Cambage been on the floor?

Remember, had Australia gone through their group games undefeated, they wouldn’t have been drawn against the powerhouse Americans this early in the tournament and could have extended their stay in Japan.

It would have been fun to see Cambage go toe-to-toe with US superstar Brittney Griner on Wednesday. The two giants, who both stand more than 2m tall, have enjoyed some classic battles both at international level and in the WNBA over the years.

Griner was the star of the show when the US beat Australia in the 2018 World Cup final, while Cambage made the All-WNBA first team ahead of her rival that same year.

“Me and Liz just like playing against each other. We’ve seen a lot of each other,” Griner said in 2018.

We didn’t get to see Cambage in green and gold this time around.

Sadly, basketball fans didn’t get to see what would have been a fascinating duel. Instead, Griner toyed with the Aussies en route to posting 15 points. Breanna Stewart had a day out too with 23 points.

Nobody’s saying Cambage’s presence would have prevented defeat against the US – but it may have resulted in something less harsh than a 24-point loss. And again, she may have prevented the Opals having to play the US before a medal was on the line in the first place.

The Opals do not appear to have a suitable match-up for Brittney Griner #Basketball#Tokyo2020

— Phil Lutton (@phillutton78) August 4, 2021

Cambage would’ve been handy today.

— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) August 4, 2021

Ezi Magbegor showed she had the potential to fill the Cambage-sized void when she starred during the Opals’ shock win over the US in a warm-up game, and top scored against Belgium and China. But placing the hopes of a nation on a 21-year-old after the controversy leading up to the Olympics was never fair, and never realistic.

Who knows whether Cambage would have saved the Opals from an early exit in Tokyo. But it would have been nice to find out.