August 12th 2023.
Recently, Liz Cambage, an Australian WNBA player, gave Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report an interview that has caused quite a stir. The interview covered a range of topics, including a scrimmage between the Australian and Nigerian national teams during the Tokyo Olympics. During the scrimmage, Cambage allegedly referred to a Nigerian player or players as ‘monkeys’.
Members of the Nigerian national team, such as guard Promise Amukamara were quick to take to Twitter to refute Cambage’s account of the incident. The interview clips quickly circulated on social media, and a leaked video of the scrimmage made its way around platforms, including Twitter/X. In the video, it was clear that Nigerian players had had enough of Cambage’s aggressive physical play. After Cambage delivered a palm to the face of one of the players, he ran over to the sideline and punched her in the jaw.
Yahoo reported that both the Nigerian and Australian teams have independently gone on the record to say that Cambage did use a racial slur. In addition, her story about joining the Nigerian team was quickly dismissed by an ex-teammate, Jordan Canada.
In response to the poor reception of the interview on social media, Cambage released a statement attempting to deny the allegations that she had used a racial slur, as well as to change her story on joining the Nigerian team. Cambage has been a lightning rod for controversy during her relatively brief time in the WNBA, dating back to when the Tulsa Shock drafted her in 2011.
In the interview, Rooks remarked that Cambage’s exit from the Sparks marked the third time that she was able to force her way from a team. Cambage responded that the media was to blame for her exit from the team. LaChina Robinson and Terrica Foster-Brasby discussed the interview on Around The Rim, and both were frustrated with the way Cambage seemed to conduct herself. Brasby said, “It didn’t feel like there was any accountability for the things that you could control, that Liz could control. There didn’t seem to be much accountability in that for me, and I was just really disappointed.”
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