Liz Cambage

Early life

Liz Cambage was born in London on 18 August 1991. Her father is Nigerian and her mother Australian.

Her parents split when she was three months old, and she moved to Australia with her mother. They first lived in Eden, New South Wales, then relocated to Melbourne when she was ten, and later to the Mornington Peninsula. At her mother's suggestion, she took up basketball at age ten to help her make friends.

Professional career

Cambage played junior basketball with Dandenong Rangers and joined their WNBL team for the 2007–08 season. In 2007, she accepted a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport and played for the AIS team in the WNBL. In March 2011, she expressed reluctance to play for the Tulsa Shock, the WNBA team that drafted her, stating she wanted to learn and improve rather than be a franchise player. She played in the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game.

After the 2012 Olympics, she was due to return to the Shock but announced on 27 August 2012 that she would not finish the season, citing exhaustion. She returned to the Shock for the 2013 season and did not return to the WNBA for five years after. In February 2018, she signed a multi-year contract with the Dallas Wings. In June 2012, she signed with Zheijang Chouzhou in China for a reported AU$400,000 salary, making her one of the highest-paid female basketballers.

In a March 2019 article, she reported being poorly compensated and unable to meet mortgage payments, noting she had not been paid since September 2018 after an injury prevented her from playing in China.

National team career

Cambage earned her first senior national team cap in 2009 during a test series against China, playing in the third game. That same year, she was part of the Australian senior women's squad that took gold at the Oceania World Qualification Series.

She went on to compete at the 2010 World Championships in the Czech Republic. In February 2012, she made the short list of 24 players eligible for the London Olympics. She attended a training camp for the team's big players in late April and early May 2012, followed by a national team camp at the Australian Institute of Sport from 14 to 18 May.