The complex story of Liz Cambage (2024)

Liz Cambage is complex.

Similarly, the story of Liz Cambage's withdrawal from the Opals team a week out from the Tokyo Olympic Games is also complex.

By the time the Australian Olympic Committee released its statement confirming Australia's best female basketballer had withdrawn from the team because of deteriorating mental health, the rumour mill was already in overdrive.

Depending on who you believed, the most prominent stories doing the rounds were that Cambage had left the team hotel and not been sighted for days, she'd been involved in some on and off-court incidents that would see her expelled from the teamor that the players could no longer play with her.

The actual reason?

"It's no secret that in the past I've struggled with my mental health and recently I've been really worried about heading into a "bubble" Olympics," the official statement reads.

"No family. No friends. No fans. No support system outside of my team. It's honestly terrifying for me. The past month I have been having panic attacks, not sleeping and not eating.

"Relying on daily medication to control my anxiety is not the place I want to be right now. Especially walking into competition on the world's biggest sporting stage."

The next day, on Instagram, as the Opals took on the USA and won, Liz added more details to her story.

"As soon as I put out that little statement yesterday and made the final decision, I felt a world of anxiety and pressure and heaviness that I have been carrying lift straight off me.

"I'm pretty annoyed at all the lies and the fake news I've seen floating around in news articles that I'm being shown and being asked about.

"It's sad that news got leaked yesterday that I didn't even know about – yeah, things got heated in the Nigerian game, there was a physical altercation and there was words exchanged but I'm hearing things that aren't true at all."

The ABC has confirmed, as Liz says, there was an altercation with words exchanged.

There is video footage of the incident which at the time of writing has not been made public.

From Nigeria's side, it is believed Liz personally apologised to the Nigerian team after the match and has also provided them with a video apology that is planned to be released on their own social media accounts in the coming days.

Nigerian sports journalist, Colin Udoh, has been following the Nigerian basketball teams in their Las Vegas pre-Olympic camp.

"Liz apologised, the Nigerian team accepted it and have no wish to take it any further," he told The Ticket.

It is believed, however, that Basketball Australia is having the incident reviewed by its Integrity Unit.

Cambage too 'unapologetic'for Australia

Back in 2018, the Bleacher Report carried perhaps the most in-depth and insightful feature on Liz Cambage.

"All her life, she has been battered and bruised on the court and told she was too tall, too loud, too much off it. Her critics advise her to keep quiet. Not to fight back … she won't do that."

The article speaks of Cambage's fears including being herself, a concept many might find difficult to believe given her outward confidence and willingness to take on all-comers, including on social media where things get more vicious than any game she's played.

The article was written by American journalist and authorMirin Fader, now writing for The Ringer.

Fader told The Ticket there is one word that describes Cambage best: "Unapologetic".

"Everything she does she 100 per cent in, whether she's having a good day, a bad day, she is unapologetically herself," she said.

"I think that authenticity is why people really love her cause you know what you're getting with her."

That love is in spades, in America. In Australia, it's a different story.

While Americans are comfortable with celebrity culture and with sports stars being bigger than their sport, Australians prefer them to stay inside the box, assuming a position of humility, certainly not using their platform in any way that might be confronting.

Ash Barty over Nick Kyrgios, for instance. Johnathan Thurston over Anthony Mundine.

Having covered the short-lived NBL career of LaMelo Ball at the Illawarra Hawks, Fader understands the complex relationship Australia has with Cambage.

"I think she is far more beloved in the US," she said.

"In the US, Liz is seen as a walking embodiment of a confident woman, a woman you want to emulate, a woman who is comfortable in her body, and loves her body, and is dominant on the court.

"She is a fashion icon here, a DJ, and I know people in Australia also see those things but I think she's has a bit more of a troubled relationship with the media.

"She's dealt with a lot of racism growing up in Australia and she's always kind of felt out of place, she was bullied as a kid so I think because she is black in a majority white country she just has not been embraced as much as in the US.

"That's just my opinion."

Confidence is Cambage's suit of armour

She's told Fader previously of her struggles with self-worth and depression: "When I'm down and out, 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."

After the Rio Olympics, where the Opals did not finish on the podium for the first time in six Olympic Games, Cambage phoned her mother, saying, "I don't want to live anymore … I need you to come here."

Fader writes Cambage, "was placed on suicide watch for two days by an Australian crisis assessment service that provided her with immediate care".

"I had an existential crisis," Cambage said.

Fader says confidence and mental health can go "hand in hand".

"I think she has both. I think her confidence is authentic, but I know deep down she really struggles with depression and anxiety.

"The thing about her depression and anxiety is that although she has had them at particular times in her life where they've been worse than other times depending on where she's playing, what else is happening in her life, it is a constant struggle.

"It's interesting, a year after I wrote the profile and talked with her, I ended up spending about a week with the Las Vegas Aces, the team she plays for.

"The one thing that she said to me that really stood out, she said, 'Life is for living. I want to do things outside of basketball, I want to live'.

"To me that speaks about how much her mind is outside of basketball, but also how she needs time to heal.

"Her struggles are very real."

One thing nobody can deny, no matter what style you prefer your sports stars to come in, Liz Cambage cannot be ignored.

"You know every time I've been around her people stare at her … they gawk at her, they can't believe she's the size that she is.

"She carries herself with confidence but of course she notices the eyes on her and it's uncomfortable when people say really mean things about her size.

"Us as women, no matter what size we are we can relate to this feeling of having our bodies feel like there's a problem with that. Even though Liz is famous and successful she's not immune to that. She faces that constantly.

"I think Liz, like all of us, wants to be seen, accepted embraced, and she isn't always and that's really painful."

As Cambage exits stage left, the Opals roll on.

Victory over the USA earlier today means, for better or worse, Cambage is already yesterday's story.