A year after Liz Cambage and the Sparks agreed to a contract divorce and her time in Los Angeles came to an unceremonious end, the Australian basketball star has emerged from a quiet year to speak about the Sparks, the WNBA and the controversy that’s plagued her career.

Cambage joined Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks for an explosive interview that dropped Monday. During the conversation, which lasted an hour and a half, Cambage denied allegations that she used a racial slur toward the Nigerian national team and said she left the Sparks halfway through last season because of a “toxic situation,” among other topics.

The Sparks have not commented on the claims nor addressed Cambage’s departure since releasing the following statement during the 2022 season:

“It is with support that we share Liz Cambage’s decision to terminate her contract with the organization,” Sparks Managing Partner Eric Holoman said last July. “We want what’s best for Liz and have agreed to part ways amicably. The Sparks remain excited about our core group and are focused on our run towards a 2022 playoff berth.”

The Sparks also did not respond to a request for comment from Just Women’s Sports. Meanwhile, many are questioning the validity of Cambage’s claims, including former teammates and opponents.

Cambage opened the interview by discussing her decision to leave L.A. after 25 games in 2022. The four-time WNBA All-Star said she signed with the Sparks on a “Hollywood lie” that included the organization offering to buy her a car, pay her rent and cover other expenses.

Per the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement, such perks would appear to fall under the category of impermissible benefits. Cambage was set to earn $170,000 in 2022 after signing a one-year deal with the Sparks that February, and she reportedly agreed to $141,386 in exchange for the contract divorce.

Cambage went on to tell Rooks that she left in the middle of the season to get out of a “toxic” environment.

“I’m dealing with a lot of disrespect, a lot of turbulent players in the locker room,” she said. “I’m telling coaches, I’m telling the GM, I’m telling ownership what’s going on, and no one cares.”

Cambage ultimately decided to leave the team during a regular-season game against the Las Vegas Aces on July 23. She said her Sparks teammates were “yelling at her” because “they didn’t know how to make a lob pass,” and after an Aces player took a charge against her and she got subbed out, she told Chiney Ogwumike that she was “done.”

Former Sparks teammate Jordin Canada took to Twitter on Tuesday to dispute the claims that Cambage was mistreated.

“I usually keep to myself and mind my business but Bleacher Report if y’all want the REAL TRUTH, call me,” Canada wrote.

Cambage’s exit from the Sparks last season was messy, but not necessarily surprising. Since being drafted in 2011, Cambage has played for 12 different teams, four in the WNBA and several overseas in China, Australia and Israel. She has never played consecutive seasons with one team.

Her WNBA stints include being drafted by Tulsa in 2011, a team Cambage was vocal about not wanting to play for. She spent one season there before leaving to play in China. She came back in 2013 to play 20 games with the Shock before exiting the WNBA until 2018. She then played a season in Dallas and two seasons in Las Vegas (with a year off in between), before playing part of the 2022 season in L.A.

Cambage wasn’t the only source of dysfunction in L.A. last season. The Sparks fired head coach and general manager Derek Fisher in June after a disappointing tenure. Chennedy Carter, the mercurial talent whom Fisher reportedly pushed the team to sign in the offseason, was benched during the season for poor conduct and waived this past March.

Cambage told Rooks that she doesn’t understand why her short stints across the WNBA are controversial, saying she “knows girls who have played for every team.” Cambage referenced Candace Parker as someone who’s played for multiple franchises. The two-time WNBA champion has been in the league for 16 seasons, playing 13 in L.A. and two in Chicago before signing with the Aces before this season.

Outside of the WNBA, Cambage also controversially parted ways with the Australian national team in 2021, citing mental health concerns as part of her reasoning not to represent the team. This followed a pre-Olympics scrimmage with Nigeria, in which an on-court altercation ensued and Cambage allegedly directed a racial slur at Nigeria’s players.

In the interview, Cambage said the video footage from the scrimmage would prove she didn’t do anything wrong and that she was “assaulted.” The video, circulated on Tuesday, shows a Nigerian player ran at Cambage on the sideline and struck her with a punch. The video also shows Cambage’s elbow making contact with the player’s head on the court prior to the altercation.

Following the scrimmage in 2021, both Australian and Nigerian players said that Cambage called the Nigerian players “monkeys” and told them to “go back to their third-world country.”

Cambage denied making the remarks in her interview with Rooks and said she was in talks to play for the Nigerian team in the future. Cambage’s father is Nigerian.

Nigeria guard Promise Amukamara disputed both claims on Twitter, saying, “She called us Monkeys & told us to go back to our country. Yes she said that! Literally everyone from both teams have the same story BUT her, so y’all do the math!”

Amukamara also denied that Cambage was in talks to play for Nigeria, something her teammate Sarah Ogoke echoed on Twitter.

“We are not recruiting you and you definitely spewed racist profanities against us during our scrimmage,” Ogoke wrote.

Babs Ogunade, Vice President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, later told ESPN reporter Colin Udoh that there was no truth to Cambage’s claim that she was “in cahoots” with Nigeria to switch her allegiance and play for them.

“Disregard the news,” he said. “I don’t know who she is talking to. Not me and definitely not (NBBF President) Kida.”

Cambage attempted to clarify her comments in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday. While she continued to deny using a racial slur against the Nigerian players, she also said she never stated that she had “officially joined the Nigerian national team.”

“Instead, I expressed my interest in joining the team and representing Nigeria,” Cambage wrote. “I had discussions with staff members about the necessary steps to become eligible, and thought I was doing them. I extend my best wishes to all players on D’Tigress.”

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

When the WNBA announced that Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase won the 2025 Coach of the Year award last week, the honor underlined an incredible year for new coaching talent in women's basketball as this year's playoffs continue. 

Nakase made headlines all season, leading Golden State to a historic playoff berth in the 2025 expansion side's first year. She stocked a brand new roster that excited fans across the country, and built the team's locker room culture from scratch. The result was flashy, modern basketball, based on playing hard, stretching the floor, and keeping the on-court tempo high.

"Her unique approach to leadership and ability to hold players accountable with care, while staying true to her values has been remarkable," Golden State GM Ohemaa Nyanin said of the debut head coach. 

And as end-of-year award momentum grew, Nakase took the attention in stride.

"Nobody really cares [about awards], honestly," she said in early September. "I'm just being deadass, our goal is to make the playoffs. To think about it, it really should be coaching staff of the year."

Nakase's success is just another example of a league that's changing, as the coaching carousel widens and new philosophies enter the game, while younger prospects take on the mantle of head coach for the first time. Minnesota's Cheryl Reeve, New York's Sandy Brondello, and Las Vegas's Becky Hammon have become synonymous with the WNBA's elite, but new entrants like Nakase alongside Atlanta's Karl Smesko and Phoenix's Nate Tibbetts are infusing the league with new ideas — all while leading their teams to historic playoff berths.

A new generation of WNBA coaches make their marks 

Even with coaching staff experience, becoming the head coach of a professional basketball franchise is never easy, Tibbetts told JWS earlier this month. He made the leap to the head coaching ranks in 2024, after spending more than 10 years as an assistant coach with multiple NBA teams including the Portland Trail Blazers and Orlando Magic. 

"Any time you slide over those 12 inches, and go from one seat to the next seat, there's just changes," he said, noting that having the power of final say inevitably adds a whole new level of responsibility. 

"When you're a head coach, you make decisions every day, and it's not just basketball stuff," he continued. "That is probably the thing that overwhelms you."

Nakase also entered the WNBA armed with NBA experience, joining Hammon's Las Vegas staff as an assistant in 2022 after a successful stint with the LA Clippers. She later moved into the head coach's box with two league championships under her belt, announced as Golden State's inaugural boss in 2024 before immediately setting a tone for the team's future.

"I'm taking a little bit of everything [from my past]," Nakase told JWS ahead of the 2025 season. "And I'm still constantly learning." 

She recalled helping the Aces through their first title run in 2022, applying her small ball experience with the NBA to the team's matchup with the Connecticut Sun. "I remember Becky being super open with ideas, just kind of taking [that series] by the horns," she said.

In California, Nakase fell in line as a collaborative leader, transforming the squad from an unfamiliar lineup to a unified force by the end of their first regular season. 

"An assistant coaching role is way different than a head coaching role, but who Natalie is to the core has stayed the same," current Valkyries — and former Aces — guard Kate Martin recently told San Francisco Chronicle. "She wants the best out of us. She's going to love you up, but also tell you what needs to be fixed — what you need to do to be better. And I think you can always appreciate that from a coach."

Over in Atlanta, Smesko's background looked a little different. He coached at the college level, successfully leading Florida Gulf Coast for more than 20 years before making the leap to the pros in 2025. He was known as an analytic wonk in NCAA circles, earning tournament berths on a strict system of three-pointers and post layups. Though he knew working with professionals required a slightly different approach.

"I was pleasantly surprised how coachable and how eager the players at the W level are to learn," he recently told JWS. "They want to be good. They want to be taught things that are going to help them become better players."

Smesko's biggest learning curve was less about responsibility, and more tied to process. He was surprised how much less time he had to implement systems in the fast-moving WNBA, where professionals tend to be less immersed in day-to-day basketball operations than student-athletes on a college campus.

"I think that forces you, as a coach, to really be deliberate and efficient," he said of the shift. "What are the things you're going to cover, and what are you going to try to get better at that particular day?"

The rookie coaches behind the WNBA's three-point revolution

Instituting a stretch offense — where guards and forwards pose legitimate threats from outside while opening interior space up inside for post players who can shoot — has been an ongoing project in the WNBA, and the league's newest coaching class has continued its evolution. 

Basketball legend Candace Parker popularized the approach as a player in the 2010s, with Hammon later embracing it as a way to get the most out of versatile Aces forward A'ja Wilson.

While Smesko and his set certainly aren't draconian in their methods, stretch offenses have exploded in popularity this season. The highest-performing teams have consistently proven comfortable taking a healthy mix of shots from behind the arc. Nakase's Valkyries led the WNBA in regular-season three-pointers made with 427, followed closely by fellow postseason contenders Atlanta and Phoenix.

While established coaches like Brondello and Reeve also encourage players to let it fly, stretch offense devotees Nakase, Smesko, and Tibbetts helmed the year's top three teams in attempted three-pointers — with each landing more three-pointers than 2024's stat-leading team.

"It's just more space for everybody to work, more actual area for defense to cover and respect," Smesko said, noting that offensive decisions get easier when the opposing defense has to cover more ground.

Tibbetts credits the way the stretch system has entered the conversation at all levels. Coaching staffs are teaching players to optimize their points-per-shot percentage, essentially setting up every offensive action to be as efficient as possible well before they launch a high-value shot. 

"[It's] just maximizing shot attempts, getting your players to understand the true values of what a shot looks like from a points-per-shot basis," he summarized.

Phoenix registered the third-highest regular-season pace of play in the WNBA in 2025, allowing for more possessions per quarter, and subsequently more shot attempts — not to mention a higher volume of three-pointer attempts. Roster construction also played into it, with Tibbetts and the Mercury's front office making sure to surround veteran inside players like MVP finalist Alyssa Thomas with teammates that understand how to push tempo and create space.

No matter what system you run, of course, any good coach also knows it's all about balance. "I don't think you need to overdo it," said Tibbetts. "There's a ton of smart players in our league." 

Chasing WNBA teams — and coaches — at the top

There have long been plenty of smart coaches in the WNBA. And to some extent, Nakase, Smesko, and Tibbetts all run similar offenses to the league's current titans of success: Brondello, Reeve, and Hammon.

"We're all trying to catch those three," Tibbetts said, wondering aloud if WNBA teams have been casting wider hiring nets in an attempt to increase parity at the coaching level. "We've done a good job of adding talent in our league, but those three are the top tier, and we're all trying to get to that level."

Hammon received two WNBA Coach of the Year votes in the wake of Vegas's 30-14 run, while Reeves received two votes for her work leading the regular season's winningest team.

"All those teams have great players, and they're just very well coached," Smesko added, giving the Aces, Liberty, and Lynx props. "They're very disciplined. They have a plan. They follow that plan."

In Phoenix, Tibbetts posited that league experience and the proven ability to handle adversity make coaches like these difficult to de-throne. 

"It's not like we're reinventing the game. They've been doing it, and now they've all got championships under their belt," Tibbetts said. "Nothing is new to them when it comes to this league."

Putting coaching perspectives to the postseason test

The new WNBA coaching class saw quantifiable regular-season success, but the first round of the 2025 playoffs emphasized that there's still room to grow before they truly threaten the WNBA's tactical elite. 

Nakase's No. 8 seed Valkyries had their hands full against Reeve's No. 1 Lynx, ceding the series to the top seed in two games, despite a competitive final matchup at home. And despite sending the reigning league champion Liberty home with last week's decisive Game 3 win, Tibbetts's Mercury is off to a 0-1 semifinal start against Minnesota.

Smesko's Atlanta side also faced stumbling blocks, as the No. 3 seed suffered a last-minute Game 3 upset to No. 6 Indiana, stamping a successful season with a frustrating ending at home.

A playoffs exit stings, but it's far from a major setback for these early-career coaches. They value the intangibles over the Xs and Os, and players have responded to their guidance in kind. 

"The organization as a whole, it's in a great direction," Atlanta guard Allisha Gray said after the Dream's final loss. "Karl, he has so much faith in us, and we proved a lot of people wrong this year."

"I just credit 'Big Wheeze' [AKA Smekso] for the turnaround," Gray continued. "He did a great job this year and brought the vision, and we believed in it."

Regardless of their postseason performance, the Valkyries have taken Golden State by storm, selling out their home slate while establishing themselves as Northern California's premier women's sports franchise. Nakase has embraced the warm welcome, developing a reputation for supporting her players and not being afraid to speak her mind. 

"I love playing for a fiery coach who always wants to win and believes in her players so much," Martin said. "That hasn't strayed from Vegas to here, her belief in every single player she's coached." 

It's eyes on the prize for this WNBA coaching class

While vital, coaching is just one ingredient in any team's success. And Smesko believes that the WNBA's competitive upswing is primarily fueled by one thing: the talent in the locker room. 

"There's never been as many great players as there are right now," he reflected. "Combined with the movement that everyone is adopting, it leads to a really fun style to watch."

Even as their postseason hopes ebb, this generation of WNBA coaching talent is eager to get started on the future — especially as the league continues to pick up steam in both popularity and parity. 

"The game is evolving, the sport is evolving," said Tibbetts. "But I think more than anything, it's just all the new eyes on this game."

UEFA locked in the next steps in the path to the 2025/26 Champions League title last Friday, setting the matchups and schedule of the newly expanded UWCL league phase with the official draw.

Nine clubs battled through the competition's initial rounds to join the nine automatic qualifiers in the upcoming 18-team league phase.

This season's new format replaces the traditional group stage, in which teams previously faced three opponents twice.

Instead, while the 2025/26 season will see each qualified club again playing six total matches (three home and three away), they will do so against six different opponents — two from each of the three pods of teams.

The results from the league phase will then determine each team's placement in next year's knockouts.

With additional opponents on each team's docket, the new league phase is providing more top-tier matchups than the previous Champions League format.

Friday's draw set up elite fixtures with reigning champs Arsenal kicking off against French powerhouse OL Lyonnes while fellow heavy-hitter Barcelona faces Bayern Munich.

Later in the league phase, WSL side Manchester United will take on the newly fortified Paris Saint-Germain as well as OL Lyonnes, and Chelsea will meet 2024/25 semifinal foe Barcelona before capping their six matches against two-time UWCL winners Wolfsburg.

The first league phase matches kick off on October 7th before wrapping on December 17th, with the 18 European clubs still standing all eyeing a spot in next May's 2025/26 Champions League final in Oslo, Norway.

The Seattle Storm is cleaning house, opting to not renew the contract of head coach Noelle Quinn following the team's first-round exit from the 2025 WNBA Playoffs last Thursday.

"On behalf of our organization, I would like to thank Noelle for her time with the Storm," Seattle GM Talisa Rhea said in Sunday's announcement. "Her commitment to the ongoing success of our organization and to furthering the development of our players was second to none. She put us in a position to win at the highest levels of the game and, for that, we are grateful."

After winning the 2018 WNBA championship as a Seattle Storm player, Quinn joined the staff as an assistant coach before claiming another title as the team's associate head coach in 2020.

The Storm named Quinn head coach in May 2021 after her predecessor Dan Hughes stepped down due to health reasons — minting her the first-ever Black woman manager in Seattle history.

In her five-year tenure at the helm, Quinn led the Storm to four playoff appearances and logged the second-most wins of any coach in Seattle history, with the 40-year-old exiting the franchise with an overall record of 101-97.

In those four playoffs, Seattle only advanced past the first round in 2022, with the team going 4-8 in all postseason play under Quinn.

The Seattle Storm finished the 2025 WNBA regular season as the No. 7 seed on a 23-21 record before falling to the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces in the first round to cap their postseason run last week.

The No. 1 Kansas City Current officially clinched the 2025 NWSL Shield on Saturday, taking down the No. 6 Seattle Reign 2-0 to lift the 2021 expansion club's first-ever piece of league hardware.

"I thought that we won with a statement," said Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski after the match. "We showed that throughout the season we were the best team in the league."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Kansas City is now the fastest Shield winner in NWSL history, claiming the hardware — and the postseason's top seeding — with five regular-season matches still remaining.

Needing a 16-point advantage atop the NWSL standings to secure the Shield over the weekend, Kansas City's Saturday win combined with Washington's Thursday draw with Angel City to put the second-place Spirit out of reach of the 2025 regular-season title.

The Current's dominance this year has the club riding a 17-2-2 overall record, racking up 14 straight results as Kansas City haven't lost a match since May 2nd and haven't conceded an NWSL goal since June 14th.

"It's just justification of all the work that we've done this year, and last year, too," added Andonovski. "We talked last year that we had a great season, and we said we were going to come out stronger.... We proved that we are a better team than last year and we are going to keep growing as we go forward."