Nearly a year ago, the WNBA superstar abruptly parted ways with the Australian Opals mere days ahead of the Tokyo Olympics after citing mental health challenges. But recent reporting suggests Cambage’s tenure with her country’s women’s national basketball team came to an end after a closed-door scrimmage against Nigeria turned ugly.
It seems that players who were at the infamous scrimmage were disgusted with her latest interview where she once again blamed everyone but herself. So, they contributed to an investigation by one of the national newspapers that came out this weekend.
Earlier this month former Opals captain Jenna O’Hea alleged Cambage told the Nigerian team to ‘go back to your third world country’ during the match, which was held in Las Vegas just weeks before the Tokyo Olympics.
. The investigation obtained the video where it was clear that it began when Cambage deliberately elbowed a Nigerian player in the neck.
The player was former WNBA player Victoria Macauley who was defending her physically but legally and had only her hand/arm on her back at the moment. She suffered a laceration as a result. The Opals coaches foolishly did not sub her out so her next series caused her to slap another Nigerian player.
That player followed her and punched her as the Opals finally tried to sub her out which caused a “five-minute meltdown” by Cambage.
She called the D’Tigress players monkeys and told them to go back to their third-world country. They point out that otherwise, she saw herself as one of them, telling them before the game that she wishes she was on their team as the Opals were racist. She also insulted Australia by tweeting out well-wishes to the Nigerian team before their Olympics.
The Nigerians were especially shocked by the alleged slurs because Cambage’s father is from the African nation.
The brawl left some Opals in tears and the team’s centre, Ezi Magbegor – who is of Nigerian heritage – was especially shattered.
Cambage was independently investigated and issued a formal reprimand – but not suspended or fined – after the practice game altercation derailed the Opals’ Tokyo campaign.
In an Instagram post published Monday, Cambage — who joined the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks in free agency this off-season — vehemently denied using “the racial slur towards the Nigerian team that has been circulating.” She also insisted that she fouled Macaulay “unintentionally” and that the entire situation “was handled privately, almost a year ago.”