There are certain events, whether tragic or triumphant, of such magnitude that you will for the rest of your life remember the moment they occurred. They are so profound that you are spellbound and, in some cases, moved to tears. They could be, for example, the Moon Landing, or the fall of the Berlin Wall, or the horrific events of 9/11.
But for me nothing will surpass the joy and relief I felt when I learned that former Opals player Liz Cambage at last feels she has been accorded the respect and consideration befitting one of her stature. Now playing for the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA, she has realised the inner peace denied to her in Australia.
“I’m living my best life. I’m supported, I’m protected on a level that the Opals or the Australian team never gave to me,” she told the ABC last week. Just six months ago she angrily parted ways with Basketball Australia (BA) after the organisation asked her to confirm her position regarding selection for this year’s World Cup.
“Do you ever get sick of lying on my name?“ she asked, posting her response to BA on Instagram. “MY interest was and still is ZERO.” Since then I have lit a candle for Liz every night and placed it in the window, hoping she will find happiness. That she has done so is something all of Australia should celebrate. Nonetheless, we must still demand that BA be held accountable for having abrogated its obligations to this sporting icon.
Surely it would not have been hard for BA to support and protect the petite 203cm/106kg star centre. Small gestures would have sufficed: for example, placing her at the front of every publicity shot, having officials constantly praise her athletic brilliance, and commissioning a statue in her honour. And lastly, recognising her celebrity status is such she is indispensable and thus should never face consequences for her actions.
Formal reprimand
Regrettably, she enjoyed no such immunity. In November, BA found Cambage guilty of prohibitive conduct on one charge, ruling she had brought the organisation into censure. The charges, three of which were dismissed, arose from a physical and verbal clash with the Nigerian women’s team during a pre-Olympic warm-up game. She received a formal reprimand, the most lenient penalty the tribunal could impose.
Last Sunday, on ABC’s Offsiders program, host Kellie Underwood put to former Opals captain Jenna O’Hea an account she had heard about this incident. Was it true, Underwood asked, that an angry Cambage had said to the Nigerian players “Go back to your third world country”.
“That is all 100 per cent correct,” O’Hea replied.
This must be a terrible misunderstanding. After all, Cambage, who herself has Nigerian heritage, possesses impeccable anti-racist credentials. In 2016 she publicly condemned Opals teammate Alice Kunek, who had applied blackface to resemble rapper Kanye West at the Melbourne Boomers’ ‘Silly Sunday’ celebrations.
“I’m … so shocked and disturbed to see this [behaviour] from someone I’m meant to call a ‘teammate’,” Cambage tweeted. “People wonder why I have issues with some @BasketballAus teammates.”
And when Black Lives Matter protests began in Australia, Cambage was among the first to take up the cause. “If you really care about black lives I’ll see you on Saturday,” she told her Instagram followers in June 2020. “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.”
Later, explaining she was dissatisfied with BA’s ‘failure’ to respond to BLM (for some inexplicable reason the basketball body’s priority was basketball), Cambage proudly told how she had instigated an internal revolt. “A couple of weeks ago on a Wednesday night I put in the group chat that I wasn’t feeling the greatest, I wasn’t feeling supported by our organisation,” she said.
Basketball Australia and the Australian Opals stand with you, Black Lives Matter. #RiseUp
— Basketball Australia (@BasketballAus) July 1, 2020
Watch the video here 👉https://t.co/PNcasakZQKpic.twitter.com/XcZHBDcWLe
“I dropped the bomb, switched my phone off and two hours later the girls were boycotting practice in the morning. I think maybe I am starting to rub off on them a little bit.” BA duly folded in announcing it stood with BLM activists, as did a parade of Opals players dutifully undertaking “to educate” themselves.
Cambage’s talent for spotting racism is remarkable. Last year she fulminated over two innocuous promotional images of Australian Olympians. “HOW AM I MEANT TO REPRESENT A COUNTRY THAT DOESN’T EVEN REPRESENT ME,” she wrote on Instagram, along with the hashtag #whitewashedAustralia. Admittedly one of the images included Indigenous Rugby Sevens player Maurice Longbottom, but let’s not spoil the narrative.
Initially Cambage had played down reports of her acting inappropriately towards the Nigerian team. “I’m pretty annoyed at all the fake news and the lies that I’m seeing floating around in news articles,” she said last year when announcing her withdrawal from the Opals Olympic squad. Following the Offsiders revelations, she cryptically tweeted this week that “the truth will always come to light”.
Do tell. I firmly believe everyone on court misheard Cambage’s comments, and that instead of telling the Nigerians “Go back to your third world country,” she actually said “As a fellow woman of colour I extend to you the hand of solidarity” or perhaps “The joint next door does a kick-arse Thai green curry chicken”.
Bogut’s truth
Former NBA star Andrew Bogut clearly shares Cambage’s sentiments about the truth emerging, but not in the manner she intended. “You just got the PG version,” he told 2GB this week regarding her alleged comments. “There was much more than that … It is beyond despicable what was said … I believe if it was anyone else we’d hear much more about it.”
He was joined by former Boomers captain Andrew Gaze. “My understanding is there’s even more to it that’s even more disgusting than what was actually said,” he told Melbourne radio station SEN. As for her claims she was not supported, he was bewildered.
“There was some behaviour from Liz that under any reasonable judgment, there would have been some significant repercussions,” he said. “She was supported, not just by me, but any others along the way. To say that she wasn’t supported is unfair, it is grossly unfair.”
There is one criticism that the BA and the Opals should wear, but it has nothing to do with failing to support Cambage. On the contrary, it is that they continued to pamper and indulge her long after it appeared obvious she was manipulating the organisation and her fellow team members for self-promotion.
The final word should go to Cambage, as quoted by the New York Times in a feature piece last week.
“I love my whole body,” Cambage said during the shoot. “I’m proud of my whole body, every inch. My soft, soft skin. My big lips. My crazy hair. I just love me.”
She can say that again.
Work needed on PS productivity
While our political leaders no doubt are focused on the potential for interest rate relief before the federal election, they should instead be preoccupied with how to lift productivity and grow the economy.
Secrecy has been a big part of problem in terror fight
Much of the concern about the rise of anti-Semitic actions is due to too much secrecy and lack of demonstrated concern, for which politicians and police must share responsibility.