Liz Cambage, who allegedly directed a racial slur at Nigerian players while playing for the Australia national basketball team in 2021, now intends to play for Nigeria — or so she claimed Monday in an interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks.

The former WNBA star also denied using a slur, instead saying she is being used as a “scapegoat” by the Australian Opals.

“Why does Nigeria want me to leave Australia and go and represent them?” said Cambage, whose father is Nigerian. “We’re filing for me to leave the Australian team, so I can represent Nigeria. I’ve been in cahoots, I’ve been talking to them since all of this happened. This is what I mean, people don’t know the truth.”

Several Nigerian players and basketball officials have disputed both of Cambage’s assertions. Cambage is not in talks to play for the Nigeria national team, and she did indeed direct a slur at its players during a 2021 scrimmage, Nigerian representatives said.

“I’m sorry but this is false,” Nigerian guard Promise Amukamara wrote Monday as part of a Twitter thread. “She called us monkeys and 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!”

Literally everyone from both teams have the same story BUT her, so y’all do the math!

— Promise Amukamara, OLY (@iPromisee) August 7, 2023

Nigerian guard Sarah Ogoke also weighed in, writing: “We are not recruiting you and you definitely spewed racist profanities against us during our scrimmage.”

Jordin Canada, who played with Cambage during her brief and rocky tenure with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2022, also pushed back after the interview. “I usually keep to myself and mind my business but Bleacher Report if y’all want the REAL TRUTH, call me,” Canada wrote.

Nigerian basketball officials also have denied speaking with Cambage about playing for the national team, ESPN contributor Colin Udoh reported Tuesday.

“I don’t know who she’s talking to,” Nigeria Basketball Federation vice president Babs Ogunade told Udoh.

When Cambage went to the Nigerian team to apologize in the immediate aftermath of the 2021 scrimmage, she brought up the possibility of playing for Nigeria with then-coach Otis Hughely, but the discussions have not progressed further, per Udoh’s report and Amukamara’s Twitter thread.

Meanwhile, Australia coach Sandy Brondello has cut short any speculation about a return to the Opals, telling CodeSports on Aug. 4 that the “door has closed” on Cambage’s time with the team.

“We spend a lot of time on culture and if you can’t buy into the culture, I won’t pick you,” Brondello said. “It is as simple as that.”

In her interview with Bleacher Report, Cambage detailed her struggles with the Opals, from teammates wearing blackface to coaches fostering friction between teammates. And she expressed optimism about the possibility of playing for Nigeria at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“I really hope Australia releases me and FIBA allows it because my fans miss me playing,” she said. “I would love to do another Olympics. Paris would be fab… My last Olympics was hideous. Rio Olympics was horrible. The Rio Olympics was one of the worst times of my life, and that’s a reflection of the coaching staff and the team.

“I would love to start fresh with teammates that understand me, look like me and appreciate me and respect me. I have been talking with the Nigerian coach. It was every day when this all first happened. Coach Otis and I are pretty tight and he has my back.”

Cambage concluded the interview once more emphasizing her desire to play for Nigeria.

“I really hope it happens because I want to go to another Olympics,” she said, “And I really respect those girlies.”

The Chicago Stars have landed a head coach, with the NWSL confirming on Wednesday that Hammarby manager Martin Sjögren will join the team when the top-flight Swedish league's season ends in November.

Under Sjögren, Hammarby currently sits second in the Damallsvenskan, with a 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-in opportunity set for later this month.

No stranger to the global stage, the incoming Chicago Stars coach led the Norway women's national team from 2016 to 2022, leading the Grasshoppers to two group-stage exits at the 2017 and 2022 Euro tournaments as well as a World Cup quarterfinal appearance in 2019.

Calling the NWSL "the most competitive league in the world," Sjögren told The Athletic on Monday that he wants "to build [the Chicago Stars] in a different way," by combining European-style tactics with US soccer's physicality.

"We want to create something sustainable that could be successful," Sjögren explained. "You can always choose to put a lot of money in and buy the best players, but when the money runs out, then you don't have a team anymore."

With just one win on the season, the Stars currently sit 13th on the 2025 NWSL table, with interim managers Masaki Hemmi and Ella Masar splitting coaching duties after Chicago fired head coach Lorne Donaldson in April.

Prior to Sjögren taking the reins ahead of the 2026 NWSL season, his longtime assistant Anders Jacobson will join the Stars "in the coming weeks" to serve as interim manager, with current interim head coach Masar then shifting back into an assistant capacity.

Jacobson will subsequently join Masar as an assistant when Sjögren arrives.

"Martin has been someone I've known and highly respected for almost 10 years," said Masar in a club statement. "Chicago is in good hands."

The PWHL hit a new single-season salary record, with the Associated Press reporting that the contract extension inked by Ottawa Charge forward Emily Clark last week pushes her 2025/26 season payday north of the $100,000 mark.

The two-year extension will keep Clark in Ottawa through the PWHL's fifth season in 2027/28.

While the specific amount is not public, the restructuring of Clark's third-season pay — the last on her initial PWHL contract — will reportedly net her the highest single-season salary in league history.

"We know what she brings. She's really the heart and soul of our organization," Charge GM Mike Hirshfeld told the AP.

A two-time Olympian who earned 2018 silver and 2022 gold with Team Canada, Clark is the only player to have taken the ice in every Charge game to date. The 29-year-old was second on Ottawa's 2024/25 scoresheet with nine goals and 10 assists in last season's 30 games.

"I am proud to have been part of this organization from the inaugural season, and I am really grateful to get to extend my contract," Clark said in a statement. "Playing for such a passionate fan base made it easy for me to want more time here.... After coming up just short of the Walter Cup last season, I am as motivated as ever to work to bring a championship in Ottawa."

While the PWHL requires a minimum salary of $35,000, the league does not set any individual maximum pay.

The only other figures that PWHL front offices must abide by are the $1.3 million-per-team 2025/26 salary cap, and a CBA mandate that at least six players on each squad must earn a minimum of $80,000.

Next season, Clark will be one of nine PWHL players making a six-figure salary, as the league expands from six to eight teams.

Flag football has gone global, as the emerging sport takes center stage this week at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China.

Eight top national flag football teams will kick off their tournament campaigns beginning on Wednesday night, all aiming for Sunday's championship final.

Reigning champions Mexico will look to defend their 2022 title against the 2024 IFAF World Championships-winning USA as well as 2024 bronze medalists Japan.

Meanwhile, squads from Austria, China, Canada, Great Britain, and Italy will look to upend the three tournament titans.

Fueled primarily by women's sports athletes, the sport is on the upswing, rising from its debut at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, to secure a spot at the 2028 LA Olympics amid growing media exposure as well as backing by the NFL and the NCAA.

"[The sport] started rolling faster after World Games [2022]," Mexico captain and quarterback Diana Flores said at an IFAF press conference this week. "It was a very important moment for the flag football community… the first time flag football was showcased on a platform as big as the World Games, a multi-sport competition where the most elite athletes go and represent their countries."

"It took a quick spiral from the World Games Birmingham to the media exposure we got to the support our organization has given us," echoed USA star quarterback Vanita Krouch. "To be here paving the way, being these trailblazers and pioneers, it's a huge honor."

How to watch flag football at The World Games 2025

The USA and Canada will kick off The World Games 2025 flag football preliminaries at 9 PM ET on Wednesday.

Knockout rounds begin when the quarterfinals take the field 8:30 PM ET on Friday, with Saturday's 11:30 PM ET bronze-medal game and Sunday's 12:50 AM ET final determining this year's podium.

The tournament will stream live on The World Games website.

The No. 3 Atlanta Dream still have something to say, entering Wednesday's matchup with the No. 8 Seattle Storm on a five-game winning streak — and, notably, just a half-game behind the No. 2 New York Liberty in the WNBA standings.

"We know it doesn't get any easier," Dream head coach Karl Smesko said of his team's remaining regular-season slate. "This is a trip where we're playing a lot of really good teams."

With stars Rhyne Howard and Brittney Griner back in the lineup, Atlanta is returning to the height of their power at exactly the right time: "I thought BG was great," Smesko said of his once-injured center. "She was moving great. She looked really good out there."

As for Seattle, however, the Storm finds themselves on the opposite trajectory, riding a five-game losing streak into Wednesday's clash.

Adding insult to injury, former Storm guard Alysha Clark confirmed this week that she requested her midseason trade to the No. 10 Washington Mystics.

"Asked Alysha Clark if she had conversations with Seattle before the trade and she said she requested to be moved," tweeted Washington Post journalist Kareem Copeland on Tuesday. "Things hadn't worked out as they envisioned and she told herself at 38 years old she was going to stay in control of her career."

Clark's admission follows 2024 reports that volatile locker room dynamics and front office disputes prompted former Seattle star Jewell Loyd to request a trade last season.

How to watch the Atlanta Dream vs. Seattle Storm on Wednesday

The Dream will put their winning streak to the test while trying to take advantage of the Storm's skid at 10 PM ET on Wednesday.

Live coverage of the game will air on ESPN3.