WNBA Star Liz Cambage Accused of Hurling Racial Slur Toward Nigerian Team Before Tokyo Olympics

WNBA Liz Cambage of the Los Angeles Sparks has been accused of hurling a racial slur toward members of the Nigerian national team ahead of the Tokyo Olympics last year.

Wishing to stay anonymous, several Nigerian players told Australia’s Daily Telegraph that the 30-year-old Cambage called them “monkeys” while telling them to “go back to your Third World country” during a closed-door scrimmage. They also allege that she elbowed an opposing player in the head and slapped another.

“That’s what I recall, the term monkeys, yes. And go back to where you came from,” a player reportedly told the outlet. “She definitely did use monkeys or monkey.”

“I was on the court. She definitely said go back to your Third World country,” another anonymous player said. “I didn’t hear it, but [teammates] confirmed she called us monkeys.”

Australian officials reportedly halted the game due to Cambage’s behavior before the second quarter. Though Cambage’s father, who is also Nigerian, apologized to the team, they did not accept the apology.

“I think it was bulls***,” one Nigerian player said. “I don’t think it was a sincere apology.”

“Although she’s Australian, we knew she was half Nigerian. So, before then, it was like she was one of us,” another said. “That was another thing to cut deep, for her to do that and not show any remorse at all.”

Cambage eventually pulled out of competing at the Tokyo Olympics for professed mental and physical health reasons.

“One of my biggest dreams is winning an Olympic gold medal with the Opals. Every athlete competing in the Olympic games should be at their mental and physical peak, and at the moment, I’m a long way from where I want and need to be. It’s no secret in the past I’ve struggled with my mental health,” she said in a statement at the time.

“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,” she added. “It breaks my heart to announce I’m withdrawing from the Olympics, but I think it’s best for the Opals and myself.”

Cambage also found herself at the center of controversy in 2021 when she unleashed a racist rant against a coach from an opposing team, calling him a “little white” man.