Liz Cambage

Elizabeth Folake Cambage (born 18 August 1991) is an Australian professional basketball player who recently joined the Sichuan Yuanda Women's Basketball Team in Chengdu, China.

Prior to her move to China, Cambage showcased her prowess with the Maccabi Bnot Ashdod of the Israeli Female Basketball Premier League.

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 m tall.

She was teased about her height in school.

At the age of 10, she was 1.83m tall, reaching 1.96m 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.

Cambage plays at the center position in basketball.

Cambage played her junior basketball with Dandenong Rangers, joining their WNBL team for the 2007–08 season.

In 2007, she accepted a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), and played for the AIS team, based in Canberra, in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL), for the remainder for the 2007–08 season and the following one In August 2020, Cambage made her return to the WNBL, signing with the Southside Flyers for the 2020–21 season.

She played for the Australia national team, the Opals, between 2009 and 2021, winning a gold medal in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, silver in the 2018 World Cup, and bronze in the 2012 Olympics.

In 2009, she played in the Under-20 Australian National Championships, and the ABC suggested she could be the next Lauren Jackson.

The only international players surpassing Cambage in height at the time were Margo Dydek, at 2.18m, and Sue Geh, at 2.05m tall.

In March 2011, Cambage expressed a reluctance to play for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team that drafted her, the Tulsa Shock, stating, "I don't want to play at Tulsa, I've made that clear. They want to make me a franchise player, but I'm not going to the WNBA for that. I'm going there to learn and improve my game. But what can you do?"

She played in the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game.

After the 2012 Summer Olympics, Cambage was due to head back to the United States to complete the WNBA season with the Tulsa Shock, but announced on the morning her flight was due to leave, 27 August 2012, that she would not be returning to finish the 2012 season.

Her agent released a statement saying she was exhausted after playing for the national team.

In June 2012, Cambage signed with Zheijang Chouzhou basketball club in China, reportedly for a salary of AUS$400,000, which made her one of the highest-paid female basketballers in the world.

Cambage returned to play for the Shock for the 2013 season, but did not return to the WNBA for five years after.

Cambage currently shares the WNBA single-game scoring record with A'ja Wilson, with her 53-point performance against the New York Liberty on 17 July 2018.

In February 2018, she signed a multi-year contract with the Dallas Wings.

In February 2018, Cambage signed a multiyear contract with the Dallas Wings.

On 17 July 2018, in a game against the New York Liberty, Cambage scored a WNBA record 53 points (the mark was later tied by A'ja Wilson).

The Wings won the game, 104–87.

Cambage was voted into the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game, making it her second all-star appearance.

Following her 53-point performance, she scored 35 points in a 90–81 victory over the Washington Mystics, making it the highest two-game point total in league history.

By the end of the season, Cambage led the league in scoring and the Wings finished with a 15–19 record as the number-eight seed in the league.

In the first-round elimination game, the Wings lost, 101–83, to the Phoenix Mercury.

Yet in an article in the Australian newspaper The Age published on 8 March 2019, Cambage reported being poorly compensated and unable to meet her mortgage payments, noting that she had not been paid since September 2018 after an injury prevented her from playing in China.

She was quoted as saying: "It's funny, we make all these sacrifices for our nation, but are we getting looked after properly at the end of the day?"

On 22 January 2019, Cambage requested a trade from the Wings.

On 16 May 2019, she was traded to the Las Vegas Aces.

During the 2019 season, Cambage was voted into the All-Star Game, making it her third all-star appearance.

At the end of the season, the Aces finished 21–13 and the number-four seed, receiving a bye to the second round.

In the second-round elimination game, the Aces advanced to the semifinals after defeating the Chicago Sky, 93–92, off a play by teammate Dearica Hamby in which she came up with a steal and nailed a desperation three-pointer from half court.

In the semifinals, the Aces' playoff run came to an end as they were defeated by the eventual champions, the Washington Mystics, in four games.

On 5 July 2020, the team announced that Cambage would sit out the 2020 WNBA season due to health concerns and pre-existing risk factors surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic after an evaluation by the team doctor.

Without Cambage, the Aces finished the season 18–4 with the number-one seed in the shortened 22-game season, they reached the finals, but were swept by the Seattle Storm.