The Story Behind Liz Cambage Being Punched in the Face & Her Alleged Lies

Former WNBA Star Liz Cambage has never shied away from the spotlight or withholding her thoughts. Whether it’s been because of her performance on the floor or situations off of it, Cambage tends to grab headlines from her actions. 

Cambage recently sat down with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report to discuss her journey and situations that have stained and derailed her basketball career. During the conversation Rooks brought up the situation between Cambage and the Nigerian women’s national basketball team.

In July 2021, Cambage reportedly got into an altercation with the Nigerian women’s national basketball team while she was suiting up with Australia in preparation for the Olympics in Tokyo. The scrimmage heard around the world quickly flooded the web as reports of racial slurs being thrown around and physical altercations occurring were leaked out of the closed-door practice. In an initial report from an Australian outlet, news.com, Cambage allegedly called the Nigerian players “monkeys” and told them to “go back to your third-world country.” 

Nigerian players verified the allegations in an interview with the outlet, claiming “she definitely did use monkeys or monkey.” Cambage immediately refuted the allegations in a now-deleted Instagram post saying she “unintentionally” fouled a player on the court and called the reports “inaccurate” and “misleading.”It’s worth noting that Cambage is half-Nigerian from her father’s side, and Nigerian players admitted that made the situation worse.

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

Following the incident, Cambage stepped away from the Australian national team prior to the Olympics and has not returned to play for them.

In the interview with Rooks, Cambage continued to refute that she used any racial slurs in the incident, which reignited the debate. She added fuel to the fire when she also mentioned that she was in talks with the Nigerian national team to suit up for them in the next Olympics. Promise Amukamara, a guard for the Nigerian national team, immediately jumped on Twitter to call out Cambage. Amukamara said both of Cambage’s statements were false.