Liz Cambage

At 33 years old, Liz Cambage has this physical status:

Elizabeth "Liz" Cambage (born 18 August 1991) is an Australian professional basketball player who plays for the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Australian Opals.

Cambage currently holds the WNBA single-game scoring record with her 53 point performance against the New York Liberty on 17 July 2018.

Early life

Cambage was born on 18 August 1991 in London to a Nigerian father and Australian mother. Her parents separated when Cambage was three months old and she moved to Australia with her mother. First settling in Eden in New South Wales, the family moved to Melbourne when Cambage was 10 years of age and later the Mornington Peninsula.

Cambage is 2.03 metres (6 ft 8 in) tall. She was teased about her height in school. At the age of ten she was 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) tall, reaching 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) by the time she was 14. She started playing basketball at her mother's suggestion when she was 10 as a way to make friends.

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Professional career

Cambage is a center of basketball. She competed in the Under-20 Australian National Championships in 2009, and the ABC suggested she might be the next Lauren Jackson. Margo Dydek (7 ft 2 in), and Sue Geh, 2.05 m (6 ft 8+1 in) tall, were the only international players over Cambage in height at the time.

Cambage played junior basketball with Dandenong Rangers in the 2007-08 season, making their WNBL team debut. In 2007, she earned a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), participated with the AIS team in Canberra, Australia, for the remainder of the 2007–08 season and the following one. In August 2020, Cambage returned to the WNBL, signing with the Southside Flyers for the 2020-21 season.

But what can you do?"

Cambage had been scheduled to return to the United States to finish the WNBA season with the Tulsa Shock in 2012, but she had to leave early on the morning, and she did not return to finish the 2012 season. After playing for the national team, her agent released a statement claiming she was drained.

Cambage returned to action for the Shock in 2013 for the first time, but not in the WNBA for five years. In February 2018, she signed a multi-year deal with the Dallas Wings.

Cambage joined Zheijang Chouzhou basketball club in China in June 2012, earning her $400,000 (Australian dollars) per month, making her one of the world's highest-paid female basketballers. Yet in an article in The Age published in September 2019, Cambage complained that she was underpaid and unable to pay her mortgage, despite the fact that an injury prevented her from playing in China. "It's funny, we make all these sacrifices for our country," she said, "but are we being looked after properly at the end of the day?"

Cambage signed a multi-year deal with the Dallas Wings in February 2018. Cambage scored a WNBA record 53 points in a match against the New York Liberty on July 17, 2018. The Wings took the game 104-87. Cambage was accepted into the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game, marking her second appearance in the franchise. Following her 53-point appearance, she scored 35 points in a 90–81 victory over the Washington Mystics, making it the highest two-game total in league history. Cambage led the league in scoring by the end of the season, and the Wings finished as the No. 8 seed in the league at 15:19. The Wings lost 101–83 to the Phoenix Mercury in the first round elimination game.

Cambage's trade request was denied by the Wings on January 22, 2019. On May 16, 2019, she was traded to the Las Vegas Aces. Cambage was nominated into the All-Star Game in 2019, making it her third appearance in the series. The Aces were 21–13 and the number four seed in the second round at the end of the season, receiving a bye in the second round. The Aces advanced to the semi-finals after defeating the Chicago Sky, 93–92, on a play by teammate Dearica Hamby, who came up with a robbery and nailed a desperation three-pointer from half court. The Aces' playoff run came to an end, as they were eliminated by the eventual champions, the Washington Mystics, in four games.

Following an investigation by the team doctor, Cambage will miss the 2020 WNBA season due to health issues and preexisting risk factors surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aces finished the season 18–4 with the number one seed in the shortened 22-game season, but they were beaten by the Seattle Storm. The referee lobbied Cambage on 23 May 2021 during a game against the Connecticut Sun, while hyperbolically claiming Cambage was "300 pounds." Cambage responded on Instagram with a message branded Connecticut Sun coach Curt Miller as a "little white man."

Cambage was released by the Sparks on July 26, 2022, following a "contract divorce."

Cambage resigned from the WNBA on August 15, 2022. She was forced to leave the Sparks three weeks after she was announced by the fire.

National team career

Cambage competed for gold medals in the Oceania World Qualification series in 2009, as well as a silver medal at the William Jones Cup in Taiwan. She was a member of the Australian junior women's team that competed at the World Championships in Thailand the previous year.

She made her first appearance on the senior national team in 2008, and it was her first cap for the Australian Opals in 2009 in a test series against China. She competed in the Canberra hosted return game against New Zealand in the Oceania Championship on September 2, 2009, and she was a member of the Australian senior women's team that claimed a gold medal at the Oceania World Qualification Series. She was a member of the national team again in 2010. In June 2010, she was selected by national team coach Carrie Graf as one of a quartet of outstanding players to represent Australia in a tour of China, the United States, and Europe. In 2010, she competed in the Salamanca Invitational Basketball Tournament in Spain. Her team defeated Spain 85-64. They also defeated the United States. In the game against Spain, she scored 20 points.

She was a member of the senior women's national team in the Czech Republic in 2010 and represented the Czech Republic in the World Championships. She was instrumental in the team's triumph. In July 2010, she attended a four-day training camp and one game practice match against the United States in Connecticut, but she missed the Olympic qualification tournament in July 2011 due to WNBA commitments. Despite this, she was chosen to the 2012 Australia women's national basketball team.

She was selected from a short list of 24 eligible candidates to represent Australia at the 2012 London Olympics in February 2012. She was one of four Australian "best" athletes to attend a special training camp for the team in late April and May 2012 and participated in the national team training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport from 14 to 18 May 2012. If Australia was to defeat the United States in London, Cambage was seen as a vital piece. Cambage beat Russia 70–66 in the 2012 Olympic Games on August 2nd. Cambage and the Opals won a bronze medal in London thanks to an 83–74 victory over Russia.

She tore her Achilles tendon just before the 2014 World Championships, causing her to miss eight months of playing time.

She was Rio's best scorer and rebounder for the team that reached the quarterfinals at the 2016 Olympics. She was also a member of the Australian team that took home gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Cambage was selected to the national team for the Tokyo Olympics but left the team in July 2021, less than two weeks before the tournament, but not too long ago. This was owing to her mental health disorders, according to her. Cambage had verbally taunted players on the Nigerian team during a pre-Olympics training game, chanting the players "monkeys" and advising the Nigerian players to "go back to your Third World Country" in May 2022. She was later discovered to have elbowed and slapped players on the Nigerian team, causing the training session to be called off.

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