What ever happened to Liz Cambage?

Liz Cambage is 2.06m tall. Her height may seem secondary to the person she is, but her story in fact centres around the fact that she is a very, very tall woman.

Arguably one of the best professional basketball players to come out of Australia, her height makes a convincing argument that she was destined to shoot hoops.

So was it destiny or the undoing of it that led 31-year-old Cambage to leave the game?

Who is Liz Cambage?

Born to an Australian mother and a Nigerian father, Cambage grew up in Melbourne. Already 1.8m tall by the age of 10 and coupled with her dark complexion, Cambage struggled to fit in as a child. Relentlessly bullied for her height and skin colour, she found a niche in basketball as an early teen and left to train full-time at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra when she was 16 years old.

By 18, Cambage had turned pro, playing for the Women’s Professional Basketball League in Melbourne. She won Most Valuable Player in her second season and made the move to the WNBA in America before she turned 20.

People who speak about her then and now, whether it be her coaches or critics, praise her talent. Like all elite players, her talent had to be harnessed, the spark translated into skill.

Her movement and coordination had to be trained but the body was always hers. The weight that comes with a 2-metre-tall frame has both served her and been her downfall. On the court she is an obvious force to be reckoned with and it is her obviousness that has made her a target.

“People get away with doing a lot to me to try and slow me down and stop me,” she told ESPN in 2019.

She has admitted in interviews that referees have shared with her privately that they do not know how to referee someone of her size.

Two years ago, Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller was fined $10,000 for saying “Come on, she’s 300 pounds” about Cambage in an attempt to persuade a referee to issue her a foul. Later, in an Instagram post, she called out Miller for the offensive comment but still felt the need to correct him on her actual weight. According to Google she is currently 98kg.

Why could she not survive on any team?

Cambage is a 4-time All Star, holds the WNBA record for scoring 53 points in a single game, ranked 9th in WNBA history for most blocks per game and 10th for rebounds per game.

And yet there are videos on YouTube that exist solely to accuse Cambage of never having played one consecutive season for a franchise since being drafted. Accounts of her consistently bailing on teams seem, for the most part, to be true.

In July this year, after having actively pursued a spot on the Los Angeles Sparks, Cambage left the American team for good. She is said to have walked out of the locker room, saying “I can’t do this anymore.” A statement was later issued by both Cambage and the LA Sparks confirming the contract divorce. There has been no further mention of a return to the sport.

Last year, in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics, Cambage – who was playing for the Australian national team, the Opals – was accused of making racist remarks to two members of a Nigerian team. She withdrew before the Olympics and left the Australian team. Former Opals captain, Jenna O’Hea, stated that Cambage would likely never represent her country again. Cambage moved to the US to play for the LA Sparks, saying of her new team “I’m supported, I’m protected on a level that the Opals, or the Australian team, never gave to me.”

 (JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images)

After walking out on the LA Sparks this year, she said: “I’ve decided to step away from the league for the time being and I’m hopeful that the WNBA will do their part in creating safer environments and a stronger support system for their players.”

It seems that Cambage still hasn’t found the support and protection she has been seeking her entire career.

Is her exit from the sport a good thing or the sport’s greatest waste of talent?

In a 2018 interview, Cambage said: “Some days I really don’t understand why I was given this vessel, this body, that is so different and has been treated so differently my whole life.”

Cambage has complained not only of opponents coming for her on court, but of well-meaning coaches actively encouraging her to keep quiet and not fight back. “I feel like my game has always been compressed and lowered because I’m taller, more passionate.”

Liz Cambage has said she is scared of being who she really is on court. Hopefully that fear will be dispelled now that she is off it.

In 2019 she said, “I love the sport, I love everything it’s given me.” For someone who has given most of her life to the sport, that seems like a fair exchange.

For 31-year-old Cambage, there will be other endeavours and pursuits outside of women’s basketball. For the game though, for better or worse, there will be no other quite like her.

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