Liz Cambage

Personal

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

She is 203 centimetres (6 ft 8 in) tall. She was teased about her height in school. At The Age of ten she was 6 ft tall, reaching 6'5" 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.

Professional career

She plays Center. 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 are the late Margo Dydek, at 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m), and the late Sue Geh, at 2.05 metres (6 ft 9 in) tall.

WNBL

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 a November 2008 90-62 loss to the Adelaide Lightning, she scored 11 points, had 12 Rebounds and fouled out of the game.

In 2009/2010 Cambage returned to Melbourne to play with the Bulleen Boomers, and in her first season with the club made the WNBL all-star five. In 2009, Bulleen played an exhibition match against the Chinese national team, that Cambage was supposed to play in. She missed it though because she had soreness in her foot, but she played in all 22 WNBL games in the 2009/2010 season. She finished the regular season with 22.3 points a game and 2.8 Blocks a game, leading the league in both categories. She also finished the season with a 59.6% field goal accuracy, another area where she led the league. In weeks 5 and 6 of the 2010/2011 season, she was named the Player of the Round, and she was the Player of the Month in November and December. In an October 2011 game against the West Coast Waves, she scored 27 points while playing 29 minutes in a 104-79 win for Bulleen. By May 2012, she had not re-signed with the team, one of the few Opals players in the league to not have made a commitment to their WNBL team one way or another.

WNBA

In March 2011, Cambage expressed a reluctance to play for the Tulsa Shock in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), 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 Campaign, Liz was due to head back to the United States to complete her season with Tulsa Shock in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), but announced on the morning her flight was due to leave, 27 August 2012, that she would not be returning to the States to finish the 2012 season with Tulsa Shock. Her agent released a statement saying "Over the past 6 months Liz has been involved with the Australian National Team as they prepared for the 2012 London Olympics. She has returned from the Olympic campaign physically exhausted and is in need of some recovery time. Unfortunately this will make her unavailable for the remaining few weeks of the WNBA season. We are aware that this is an unfortunate situation and we appreciate and thank Tulsa Shock for their understanding."

Cambage did come play for the Shock during the 2013 season.

China

In June 2012, Cambage signed with Zheijang Chouzhou basketball club in China, reportedly worth about $400,000 (Australian dollars). This salary would make her one of the highest-paid female basketballers in the world.

National team

In 2008, she was a member of the Australian junior women's national team that won a gold medal at the Oceania World Qualification series, and a silver medal at the William Jones Cup in Taiwan. The following year, she was a member of the Australian junior women's team that competed at the World Championships in Thailand.

Her first call up to the senior national side was in 2008, and she had her first cap for the Australian Opals in 2009 in a test series against China, went she played in the third game in the series. On 2 September 2009, she played in the Canberra hosted return game against New Zealand in the Oceania Championship, and she was a member of the Australian senior women's team that won 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 viewed by national team coach Carrie Graf as one of a quartet of strong players that would represent Australia in a tour of China, the United States and Europe. In 2010, she participated in the Salamanca Invitational Basketball Tournament in Spain. Her team beat Spain 85-64. They also beat the United States. She scored 20 points in the game against Spain.

In 2010, she was a member of the senior women's national team that competed at the World Championships in the Czech Republic. She was important to the team's success. In July 2010, she participated in a four-day training camp and one game test match against the United States in Connecticut, but missed the Olympic qualification series in July 2011 because of WNBA commitments. Nonetheless, she was named to the 2012 Australia women's national basketball team. In February 2012, she was named to a short list of 24 eligible players to represent Australia at the 2012 London Olympics. In late April and early May 2012, she was one of four Australian "big" players to participate in a special training camp for the team, and participated in the national team training camp held from 14 to 18 May 2012 at the Australian Institute of Sport. Cambage was seen as a key component if Australia is to beat the United States in London. At the 2012 Olympic Games on 2 August, Cambage successfully dunked the basketball with one hand in a 70-66 victory over Russia. Although it is generally believed to be the first successful dunk by a female athlete to take place during the Olympic Games, FIBA have yet to confirm if this is the case. Cambrage helped the Opals to win the Bronze Medal in London with an 83-74 win over Russia.