More details have emerged about Aussie WNBA superstar Liz Cambage’s ax from the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday, with reports of her throwing a tantrum before later storming out of the locker room.
The sacking of the 30-year-old Australian basketball superstar could end a storied WNBA career with four All-Star rosters and the record for most points in a game (53).
Her last game for the team was on July 23 against her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, resulting in a disappointing 84-66 loss.
Sources close to the situation say Cambage was openly and verbally unhappy with her teammates during the match for not getting enough mail contacts. Yahoo Sports.
A post-touch occurs when a player gets the ball with his back to the basket between the free-throw line and the baseline and tries to use his height, position and power to score.
Liz Cambage screams during her final game for her WNBA team, the Los Angeles Sparks, against Las Vegas on July 24
More details are known about the Australian basketball superstar’s lure
Given the behavior that had happened before, teammates who were tired of passing her the ball as many times as they could, no matter what the situation or tactic required.
The 203cm Australian then walked into the locker room to get out of the game early and told her teammates she had had enough.
‘I can not do this anymore. Good luck to you,” she said, according to Yahoo’s sources.
Liz Cambage prepares for a free throw in her final game for the LA Sparks on July 24
It led to whispers that she would be leaving the club before the Sparks set the record on Tuesday.
“With support, we share Liz Cambage’s decision to terminate her contract with the organization,” Sparks Managing Partner Eric Holoman said in a statement.
“We want the best for Liz and have agreed to part amicably. The Sparks remain excited about our core group and are focused on our run to a playoff berth in 2022.”
Cambage joined the WNBA powerhouse as a free agent in February, but her brief stint was controversial from the start.
Cambage’s time with the Sparks began and ended controversially
She couldn’t get any of the playing numbers she wanted before the club stepped in and grabbed Amanda Zahui B.’s number one jersey without telling her, which disappointed both Zahui and their teammates.
Zahui was then suspended, without payment, for the remainder of the season in an unrelated move.
According to reports, Cambage often called out her teammates during video review sessions, but perhaps the most impactful incident on the club’s deteriorating culture was her alleged racist remarks against Nigerian players ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Liz Cambage (second from right) was attacked by her teammates during her last game for the Sparks on July 24
Cambage’s now infamous alleged racist remarks came during a pre-Olympic scrimmage between Australia and Nigeria, with the Aussie also sparking a few brawls.
Opals teammates and members of the Nigerian team claimed that Cambage called her opponents “monkeys” and told the entire party to “go back to your third world country” during a timeout.
Cambage, who is half Nigerian, continues to deny the charges.
Liz Cambage was born in London to a Nigerian father and an Australian mother before moving to Australia as three months old
Among her teammates at the Sparks were Nigerian-American sisters Chimey and Nneka Ogwumike.
Team chemistry was reportedly not the reason Cambage and the Sparks broke up, according to a PR firm she was associated with — but those claims have since been hotly disputed.
Before reports surfaced of her tantrum on the pitch and the explosion in the locker room, images emerged of Chimey looking anything but friendly at a recent press conference.
As Cambage discusses her recovery from a third bout of COVID, Ogwumike can roll her eyes and shake her head, clearly unimpressed by her teammate.
Teammate Brittney Sykes sat in between the pair during the press conference and didn’t seem impressed either, though her response wasn’t as overt as Ogwumike’s.
Many would say that the facial expressions of Liz Cambage’s (left) teammates Brittney Sykes (center) and Chimey Ogwumike (right) summed up the reaction of many WNBA players, fans and pundits to Cambage’s implosion
Despite all the attention for Cambage, the Los Angeles Sparks have struggled since winning the Western Conference in 2019.
The club finished in a disappointing sixth place in the conference last season and has the disappointing record of 12-15 so far this year.
Their practice venue has been described as the worst in the league, and head coach/general manager Derek Fisher was fired in June – and losing Cambage will be another blow.
So what does Cambage offer now?
Liz Cambage’s latest story on Instagram featured this cryptic post about time that is precious
The Sparks were the only club interested in signing her, so it’s likely her highly successful, albeit stop-start, WNBA career has now ended.
She doesn’t lack a side job, though, with an OnlyFans account, a modeling career, vitamin business and DJ skills to fall back on.
Now-fired coach Derek Fisher ominously warned of the disaster that was about to unfold just before the 2022 season began.
‘Is it going to be great? Or will it implode?’ he asked on the team’s media day, according to the Los Angeles Times.