Retired Team captain of the Australian Olympic Basketball team, Jenna O’Hea said that she believes Liz Cambage has likely played her last match for Australia.
During an interview on Sunday, O’Hea claimed that the incident in which Cambage allegedly told the Nigerian players to ‘go back to their third-world country’ was the one of the reasons why she left the national team.
After the incident Cambage announced her withdrawal from the Tokyo Olympics on the eve of the games citing mental health, panic attacks and the “terrifying” prospect of entering a bubble environment.
Without her, Australia went 1-3 in Tokyo and lost to the US in the quarterfinals, its worst performance at the Olympics since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Cambage was independently investigated by Basketball Australia, which issued a formal reprimand, after an inquiry of the Nigeria incident.
Shortly after the ruling, Cambage posted on social media that she had no interest in playing for the national team. She was then omitted from the 24-player roster for the FIBA World Cup in Sydney.
Australian basketball great Andrew Bogut, alleged what she actually said was worse than reported.
“You’ve just got the PG version, there was much more than that – I’m just glad someone’s come out and said it,” Bogut told radio station 2GB on Monday.
“Yeah, things got heated in the Nigeria game, there was a physical altercation and there were words exchanged,” Cambage said at the time. “But I’m hearing things that aren’t true at all. Everything that happened and everything I’ve said is on film.”
Cambage recently told ABC of the national team, nicknamed the Opals, “I’m living my best life. I’m supported. I’m protected on a level that the Opals or the Australian team never gave to me. My heart lies with those who want to protect me and those who want me to be the best I can be, and I never felt that in the Opals at all.”
Former star player and coach Andrew Gaze said Cambage’s criticism of Basketball Australia was “unfair”.
“Above and beyond that [the Nigeria comments], the thing that really, really grates at me is when she makes the comments to say she feels supported in Los Angeles at a level that wasn’t there with the Australian team and the suggestion that she was never supported by Australia, the Opals, or Basketball Australia, that is highly offensive,” Gaze told SEN radio.
“I have been in a privileged position to be on the board of Basketball Australia during much of her time and I had a long conversation with her directly, and unfortunately, I couldn’t have that conversation just one on one, her agent had to be there.
“She was supported, not just by me, but by others along the way … to say that she wasn’t supported is unfair.”
Cambage earned a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics and was the leading scorer during the London games. She is currently a member of the Los Angeles Sparks.
After O’Hea’s comments aired over the weekend, Cambage tweeted, “The truth will always come to light, and it ain’t even dawn yet.”
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