While playing for the Australian national team, Liz Cambage reportedly directed a racial slur at the Nigerian national team during a closed-door scrimmage ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, according to an investigation by The Daily Telegraph. The WNBA star has denied the allegations.

A video obtained by the Australian newspaper shows Cambage elbowing a Nigerian player in the head and slapping another. Members of the Nigerian team, who spoke with The Daily Telegraph on the condition of anonymity, said Cambage called them “monkeys” and told them to “go back to your third world country.”

The Las Vegas-based practice game was called in the second quarter due to the outburst.

Australian national team basketball captain Jenna O’Hea confirmed an altercation involving Cambage during a tell-all interview with “Offsiders” in early May.

“I can hold my head up high and say that I always loved her, always cared for her, always supported her, always had her back,” said O’Hea of Cambage’s comments that she didn’t feel supported by the Australian national team.

Cambage withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics in July, citing her mental health.

The episode in Las Vegas, according to an Australian teammate who spoke with The Daily Telegraph, was a breaking point for the team.

“There had been so many behavioural issues that had gone on previously that we could write a book, but that (Vegas) incident happened to be the final straw which happened to be the worst one,” the teammate said.

Cambage apologized to the Nigerian team after the incident, but it “wasn’t well received by every player,” according to the report.

“Although she’s Australian we knew she was half Nigerian so before then it was like she was one of us,” a player told the Sunday Telegraph. “That was another thing to cut deep, for her to do that and not show any remorse at all.”

Cambage responded to the report in a post to her Instagram on Sunday, denying using a racial slur.

“I am very disappointed and hurt by the events and accusations that have unfolded in the Australian media. The recount of what took place is inaccurate and misleading,” wrote Cambage. “I did not use the racial slur towards the Nigerian team that has been circulating.” The Los Angeles Sparks star also reveals that she asked to sit out the game in question as she was struggling with her mental and physical health.

“I have taken responsibility and accountability for my involvement in what occurred. I genuinely apologised to the Nigerian team and I once again, am sorry that these events are being rehashed.”

Former Australian national team basketball captain Jenna O’Hea sat down for a tell-all interview with Offsiders on Saturday, shedding light on the Opals’ perspective of Liz Cambage’s controversial exit from the team last summer. Cambage withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics in July, citing her mental health, after she was reportedly involved in a physical altercation with the Nigerian national team during a closed-door scrimmage.

Cambage recently told ABC News that she didn’t feel supported by the Australian national team. When asked to respond to Cambage’s comments, O’Hea called it “her reality.”

“I can hold my head up high and say that I always loved her, always cared for her, always supported her, always had her back,” said O’Hea, Cambage’s teammate with the Opals and the Southside Flyers. The players won a WNBL title together with the Flyers in 2020.

O’Hea then confirmed that there was a falling out during an exhibition game between Nigeria and Australia in the lead-up to the Olympics. Cambage, O’Hea verified, told the Nigerian players to “go back to your Third World country,” to which Ezi Magbegor, an Australian national team player and Nigerian native, took offense. The exchange led to an on-court brawl and a messy aftermath.

“That is all 100 percent correct,” O’Hea said when asked to confirm the report, adding that she didn’t think Cambage would ever play for Australia again. Following the incident, Cambage announced her withdrawal from the Olympic roster. In November, Basketball Australia issued her a formal reprimand after conducting an investigation into the incident.

Cambage later said that the Olympic break saved her season. Without Cambage, the No. 2 Opals lost in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics.

O’Hea said part of the reason for Australia’s disappointing finish was that Cambage pulled out seven days prior to the Olympics.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare without her,” she said. “I think that there are just so many wonderfully talented basketballers in Australia. We’ve got so many playing over in the WNBA at the moment, there’s plenty here in Australia as well. And so with the right preparation, I think we can do really well on home soil at the World Cup this year.”

Cambage was again absent from Australia’s FIBA World Cup roster in December, saying that her interest in competing for the national team was “zero.”

The Los Angeles Sparks took down the reigning WNBA champion Chicago Sky on Friday in a 98-91 overtime win.

A controversial foul call on Dana Evans with 1.5 seconds left enabled Jordin Canada to sink three of her free throws and send the game to overtime. After the game, Sky coach James Wade called out the officiating on that play and a technical foul he received late in the third quarter.

“We had a chance to close out the game but I’m just disappointed in me getting a tech for doing (carrying signal),” Wade said. “It’s B.S., because we put in work. And it’s the same thing. Stuff like that has no place in our league. You don’t have no place to just take stuff personal and just take it out on somebody.”

“Everybody saw that. You all saw that wasn’t a foul,” Wade continued, addressing the foul that sent the game to overtime. “She still didn’t touch her, even though (Canada) threw her body forward, (Evans) didn’t touch her. And how could people that do this for a living see that and call that. It’s ridiculous. But it’s my life, you guys, it’s the story of my life.”

Evans also felt that she did not foul Canada, responding when asked: “Not at all, no, nope.”

In overtime, the Sparks outscored Chicago 10-3 to secure the win.

Liz Cambage had 12 points and four rebounds in her Sparks debut. Canada led all Sparks scorers with a career-high tying 21 points, eight assists and four rebounds. Nneka Ogwumike added 19 points and seven rebounds.

The Sky had two players exceed 20 points, with Evans scoring a career-high 24 points and Candace Parker contributing 21. She added six rebounds, six assists and three steals in the effort.

Chicago will have an opportunity to rebound against the New York Liberty on Wednesday while the Sparks take on the Indiana Fever on Sunday.

TORRANCE, Calif. — With a mischievous grin on her face, new Los Angeles Sparks point guard Chennedy Carter pulled up a chair among the media and prepared to mess with her teammates Te’a Cooper and Arella Guirantes.

Called on to ask a question, Carter got down to business.

“How you doin’? My name is Hollywood, Hollywood Carter,” Carter introduced herself with the straightest face she could muster. “What are you guys looking most forward to about this season?”

The question was a softball, but it wasn’t meant to be hard-hitting. Carter was having fun, and her lightheartedness was contagious, eliciting laughter from Cooper and Guirantes. And when Carter took her place at the podium in the following Q&A session, Cooper razzed her back.

Coming off a disappointing 12-20 season, in which they missed the playoffs for just the third time in the past 22 seasons and the first time since 2011, the Sparks could understandably feel extra pressure. The expectations are even higher this season after the team landed superstar Liz Cambage from the Las Vegas Aces in free agency and added Carter, Katie Lou Samuelson and Jordin Canada to the mix. Four of the team’s players — Nneka Ogwumike, Cambage, Kristie Toliver and Chiney Ogwumike — have combined for 15 WNBA All-Star Game selections. The roster has won a total of six WNBA championships and features two first overall draft picks, two second overall selections and seven players taken in the top four spots of their respective drafts. The Sparks, too, boast six combined career All-Defensive First Team selections.

And yet, despite all the talent and accompanying expectations, the vibe among players and head coach/general manager Derek Fisher at media day on Wednesday was light. The Sparks know what’s at stake this summer, but they’re taking a levelheaded approach.

“It’s time for us to show more so than talk and tell,” Fisher said. “We hear noise from the outside, we’ll continue to hear more of it, but we’re really just going to focus on who we are and becoming the best version of ourselves. We believe that with this group, if we can get anywhere close to the potential that the group holds, the results will take care of themselves.”

Fisher emphasized patience when it comes to reacting to the results of a team dependent on several newcomers.

“It’s not easy to just put 12 players together and just go out there and win every night at the professional level or at any level,” said Fisher, who played 18 seasons in the NBA before moving into coaching and taking over the Sparks job in 2019.

“We have to be realistic about some of the time that it will take to find the rhythm and the timing for how we can create success with this version of our team. With all that said, we expect a lot from ourselves. We have to be open to being so fully present in each moment that we’re not holding ourselves to some arbitrary expectation. It’s really about what we’re doing right now to get better … If it takes us a little bit more time, so be it.”

Through the first two weeks of training camp, the Sparks have tried to keep things loose, influenced in part by two new goofballs on the team, Carter and Cambage. Cooper, a third-year guard, has known Carter since their days rooming together at Team USA trials.

“She just played the whole time,” Cooper said. “We just laughed all night long. She’s still the same jokester.”

“Chennedy’s a kid,” Nneka Ogwumike added. “She’s a kid, and she brings that energy. Sometimes it’s great to have that type of energy, especially when you have certain returners that were holding really big minutes last year through the challenges that we experienced. … Her nickname is ‘Hollywood,’ which is so funny because everyone’s asking me if she’s from here and I’m like ‘No, she’s not.’ That’s just the lightness that she brings.”

Four-time WNBA All-Star and 2018 scoring champion Cambage also displayed her proclivity for play during media day. She joked that Brittney Sykes should focus on dunking in a game (the defensive specialist regularly blocks the 6-foot-8 Cambage’s shot in practice), superstitiously refused to disclose any of her pinky promises that have yet to materialize and dropped the occasional curse word before apologizing each time.

Another key figure keeping everyone light is the team’s head coach, whom Sykes described as “a funny dude on the low.”

“If you get him to yourself on the side, he’s got some jokes,” the 2021 WNBA All-Defensive First Teamer said of Fisher. “He’s actually got some jokes in his back pocket.”

Jokes aside, Cambage, like her coach, preached patience.

“The most important thing, at the start of this season, is that we’re focusing on our chemistry and getting it together,” she said. “Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’re not going to be the team tomorrow. It’s going to take time. Just as long as we got the chemistry right and we’re vibing at the end of the season, that’s all that’s important.”

Despite a realistic attitude, Cambage herself expects huge success from her new team this season.

“Crowd’s gonna be lit. Building’s gonna be lit. Women’s basketball is going to be lit. It’s going to be the most wild summer the WNBA’s ever seen. That’s how I think this summer’s going to go,” the 30-year-old center declared. “And we’re going to have a ring at the end of it.”

Joshua Fischman is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering Angel City FC and the Los Angeles Sparks. He has covered basketball for Vantage Sports and Hoops Rumors and served as co-host of “On the NBA Beat” podcast. Joshua received his master’s in Sports Media from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Follow him on Twitter @JJTheJuggernaut.

WNBA center Liz Cambage has finally made it to Los Angeles, being officially introduced by the Sparks in a news conference Wednesday as a member of the team. In the press conference, she revealed that while she is grateful for her time with the Las Vegas Aces, it was “really LA or out for me.”

“There’s nowhere else I wanted to be,” she said. “The opportunity to play here and work here and be part of such a prestigious organization, it was a no-brainer. There’s truly nowhere else I have wanted to be in the WNBA and I’m just happy that I’m finally here after so many years.”

As for where she fits in on the Sparks, who have added other big-name players in the offseason like Chennedy Carter and Katie-Lou Samuelson, Cambage feels like she fits right in the middle.

Cambage also talked about her recent comments regarding the $1 million contract Becky Hammon signed with the Aces. She initially hit back at the WNBA after Hamon’s salary was announced, calling out the fact that coaches can make four-times what the highest paid players can make on a supermax contract.

The comments were met with some heat, although Aces’ owner Mark Davis said he agreed “100 percent” with Cambage.

On Wednesday, Cambage addressed the controversy.

“I find myself saying, ‘If not me, then who?’ And if not now, then when?'” Cambage said. “I don’t know if it was the fire my mother raised me with to never back down or be put in a corner, and just say your truth. If something’s not right, I’m going to question it.

“And I’m also the type of person, I never want to take away from what someone else has. I want to work out how we can get more. I hate to see things that I’ve said be portrayed that I’m trying to take away from someone else. I’ve never been that person. I’ve never been a jealous person. I live a very blessed life. But I’m going to say something if we need change.”

She also said that she’s known about Hammon’s contract “since it happened last year.”

“I love it for Becky. I love it for all women,” she continued. “I hope everyone makes a million dollars a year one day. But until then, we’ve got to work out better ways to give us, the players, more.”

Liz Cambage has signed with the Los Angeles Sparks, weeks after it was reported that she had “verbally committed” to play for the team.

In five seasons in the WNBA, Cambage is a four-time WNBA All-Star (2011, 2018, 2019, 2021). Through those five seasons, she’s averaged 16.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.6 blocks per game.

“The Sparks organization is ecstatic to partner with a dynamic person and player in Liz Cambage who will elevate the franchise on and off the court,” General Manager/Head Coach Derek Fisher said. “At her best, Liz is the most dominant women’s basketball player in the world. She scores efficiently inside, can stretch the floor, and is a good passer. She’s also one of the league’s best rim protectors and rebounds at a high level. The addition of Liz, along with our other offseason moves, puts us in a position to compete for a WNBA championship.”

The No. 2 overall draft pick in 2011 by the Tulsa Shock, Cambage played in 2011 and 2013 for Tulsa before leaving to play overseas in China. She then returned to the WNBA in 2018 and had one of her best seasons in the WNBA. That season, she was named to the First-Team All-WNBA team and was named the WNBA’s scoring champion, averaging 23.0 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. She finished second in MVP voting.

Cambage was also named Second-Team All-WNBA in 2019 and was a member of the All-Rookie Team in 2011.

The center also holds the record for most points in a WNBA game, having scored 53 points as a member of the Dallas Wings on July 17, 2018.

“It’s always been my dream to wear the Purple & Gold and play in LA,” Cambage said. “This is an incredible opportunity to compete for a championship alongside Nneka, Kristi, and a deep, talented team. I’m grateful to Coach Fisher and the Sparks ownership group for their player-first approach and commitment to winning on and off the court. I’m ready to pour everything I have into this team and the legendary Sparks fans.”

Chennedy Carter, who was traded to the Sparks from the Atlanta Dream, said teaming with Cambage would be akin to having ‘Kobe and Shaq‘ back in LA.

Chennedy Carter spoke with the media on Thursday for the first time since being traded to the Los Angeles Sparks from the Atlanta Dream.

The former No. 4 overall pick was suspended by the Dream last season for what the team described as “conduct detrimental to the team.” She did not return for the rest of the season. Despite newly-appointed head coach Tanisha Wright calling her “a part of our roster” in December, Carter was traded to the Sparks on Feb. 6.

When asked about the situation with the Dream, Carter said that she doesn’t feel comfortable talking about what went down.

“I’m happy with the new move,” she said. “I’m focused on LA and that’s all I can say.

“The last year for me has been kind of difficult, a little bit depressing, just because the game of basketball [was] obviously taken away from me. But I also got a lot of time to find out different things about myself. Spend a lot more time with my family, do a lot more traveling and also just work on my game. I was able to better my game and grow as an individual.”

When asked about the potential of playing with Liz Cambage, who has signed with the Sparks for next season, she said it was something that she has thought about “since I got to the WNBA.”

“It’s like Shaq and Kobe,” she added. “You really have to pick and choose. If I get that five, it’s gonna be trouble.”

Unrestricted WNBA free agent Liz Cambage has verbally committed to play for Los Angeles, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

A member of the Las Vegas Aces since 2019, Cambage was one of the biggest free agents in the WNBA this offseason. There has been much speculation on where she would land, and even some speculation as to whether she would even play in the league.

The unrestricted free agent lashed out at the WNBA after Aces’ coach Becky Hammon’s salary was announced to be more than $1 million a year.

“Ahhh yes the WNBA, where a head coach can get paid 4X the highest paid players super max contract,” she wrote. “Lmao and y’all think imma spend another season upgrading my seat on a flight to get to games out of my own pocket.”

While the statement was met with some backlash, Aces’ owner Mark Davis said he agrees “100 percent” with Cambage’s stance on player salaries.

“Liz Cambage kind of came out with a statement, and I agree 100 percent with what she says,” Davis said. “That the players do deserve more money. That they don’t need to be flying on commercial flights.”

Last season, Cambage averaged 14.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. The four-time WNBA All-Star finished fourth in the league in blocked shots with 1.6 per game.

A high-powered scorer, she finished as the WNBA’s scoring leader in 2018 and was also named the WNBA’s Peak Performer that year. Her 53-pt performance against New York that season remains the highest single-game point total in WNBA history.

She is expected to play a major role alongside Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike.

Los Angeles has been making other major moves this offseason, reportedly signing free agent guard Jordin Canada. They also traded Erica Wheeler to Atlanta in exchange for Chennedy Carter.

Las Vegas Aces’ owner Mark Davis wants player’s salaries in the WNBA to increase, saying during a Thursday media call that it is his number one priority.

“We have to be paying these women commensurate to what their abilities are and what they’re doing,” he said.

On the call, Davis asserted that he agrees “100 percent” with what Liz Cambage said about player salaries versus coaches’ salaries on Tuesday.

The unrestricted free agent hit back at the WNBA after Aces’ coach Becky Hammon’s salary was announced to be more than $1 million a year.

“Ahhh yes the WNBA, where a head coach can get paid 4X the highest paid players super max contract,” she wrote. “Lmao and y’all think imma spend another season upgrading my seat on a flight to get to games out of my own pocket.”

The statement was met with some backlash, as some like ESPN’s Holly Rowe felt as though Cambage was calling out Becky Hammon for the amount of money she will make as head coach.

“Becky Hammon spent 15 years in the WNBA as an undrafted player, made her way, became one of the greatest of all time,” Rowe said during Tuesday’s WNBA Free Agency show on ESPN. “Becky Hammon earned every penny she’s about to get paid because of her lifetime work in the WNBA, and players like Liz Cambage got paid more because of some of the work Becky Hammon did. So let’s celebrate a woman getting a million-dollar contract in the league instead of women tearing each other down.”

But Davis did not appear to be taking the comments that way.

“Liz Cambage kind of came out with a statement, and I agree 100 percent with what she says,” Davis said. “That the players do deserve more money. That they don’t need to be flying on commercial flights.

“I agree with all of those things and those are things that the Las Vegas Aces are going to be champions of, and that we’re going to grow for the good of everybody in this league.”

Davis said that while Hammon “didn’t want to be a million-dollar coach,” he had other plans — plans meant to help spark conversation about investing in women’s sports.

“I wanted her to be a million dollar coach,” he said. “Because I thought that she would be, in a sense — when the American Football League started, they had a television contract. And they had Joe Namath. And Joe Namath had the $400,00 contract and he sparked the imagination of everybody that ‘This league is real.’

“I felt that giving Becky Hammon the million-dollar contract… would then show everybody that there is value here.”

Aces’ star A’ja Wilson later took to Twitter to say that Davis was “talkin’ that TALK in the press conference.”

Unrestricted free agent Liz Cambage is hitting back at the WNBA after it was announced that Aces’ coach Becky Hammon would be making more than $1 million a year.

“Ahhh yes the WNBA, where a head coach can get paid 4X the highest paid players super max contract,” she wrote. “Lmao and y’all think imma spend another season upgrading my seat on a flight to get to games out of my own pocket.”

Cambage has spent five seasons in the WNBA dating back to 2011, spending the last two seasons in Las Vegas. The Australian center averaged 14.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game in 2021.

She has spent significant amounts of time playing overseas, including from 2012-2018 when she split time between China and her native Australia. She rejoined the league in 2018 as a member of the Dallas Wings and was the WNBA’s scoring leader for that season. She’s been named an All-Star four times and was the WNBA’s peak performer in 2018.

An unrestricted free agent, Cambage is considered one of the top players on the market for this offseason.