Liz Cambage attends the 2022 ESPYs at Dolby Theatre on July 20, 2022 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images)
*Video has surfaced showing former WNBA star Liz Cambage elbowing and slapping opponents during the Australia vs. Nigeria game in 2021.
Cambage is alleged to have called her opponents “monkeys” during the game. At one point, a player from the opposing team swung at Cambage’s head, knocking her to the floor.
The video leaked shortly after Cambage addressed the incident in a new interview with Bleacher Report, during which she denied calling Nigerian players “monkeys” and telling them to “go back to your own third-world country” in the pre-Tokyo Olympics scrimmage.
Cambage said the accusations are “inaccurate and misleading.”
At the time of the incident, Cambage said she was having panic attacks about entering an Olympic COVID bubble, New York Post reports.
Footage has surfaced of the infamous Australia vs. Nigeria game where then- WNBA star Liz Cambage was seen elbowing and slapping opponents in the face. In the same incident, Cambage allegedly called opponents, ‘monkeys.’
Cambage was swung at in retaliation later in the match. pic.twitter.com/MmXI4R2WWq
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) August 10, 2023
The 31-year-old athlete walked away from the Australian Opals a week before their first game at the Tokyo Olympics, and she hasn’t played with the team since.
“The incident that took place in the pre-Olympic scrimmage with the Nigerian national team was handled privately almost a year ago,” Cambage previously wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post, CBS News reported.
“I am very disappointed and hurt by the events and accusations that have unfolded in the Australian media. The account of what took place is inaccurate and misleading. I did not use the racial slur toward the Nigerian team that has been circulating,” the post continued.
Speaking to Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report for an interview on Monday, Cambage, whose father is from Nigeria, once again denied using racial slurs towards any Nigerian player. When asked why her version differs from others who were there, Cambage said, “a lot of girls don’t like me.”
“I don’t really lean towards racially backed insults,” she added. “That’s not how I go. I’m very pro-Black. I did not say these [things]to these girls. The truth looks a lot worse for other organizations involved, than using me as a scapegoat.”
Cambage also noted that the Nigerian national team has asked her to play for them. But Nigeria Basketball Federation vice president Babs Ogunade denied this.
“Disregard the news,” he told ESPN’s Colin Udoh. “I don’t know who she’s talking to. Not me and definitely not (NBBF president Ahmadu Musa) Kida.”
READ MORE: Former WNBA Star Liz Cambage Denies Calling Nigerian Players ‘Monkeys’ | Watch
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