Four-time WNBA. All-Star Liz Cambage, 30, and the Los Angeles Sparks are separating. This is the latest ending for the star center who only three months ago confidently declared that the team was “where I want to be.”
On Tuesday, the Sparks announced that Cambage had agreed to a contract divorce just after five months of Cambage signing with them. The six-foot-eight Australian averaged 13 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in 25 games this season while also holding onto the WNBA single-game scoring record with 53 points.
“It was a surprise — I didn’t know what really escalated it. A lot of it could have been things off the court, off floor, who knows. Having conversations with her afterward, it just felt it was good for her personally to make that move. All we can do as an organization is support that and her decisions and just move on, ” Fred Williams, the team’s interim
coach said at a media availability on Tuesday.
Cambage’s split with the Sparks is the third one with a WNBA team in just five years. Cambage, who grew up outside Melbourne, Australia, refuses to play for her home country after being accused of using racial slurs against opponents in the Tokyo Olympics. She has denied this.
Cambage was first drafted in 2011 for WNBA’s Tulsa Shock. She then took a four-season hiatus from the league before rejoining the team, which had relocated to Dallas and rebranded as the Wings.
After demanding a trade from Dallas after one year in a multi-year contract, she relocated to the Las Vegas Aces in 2019. Cambage sat out of the 2020 season because of Covid-19 concerns but managed to get the Aces to the WNBA semifinals in both 2019 and 2021. She left the team after the 2021 season, criticizing the WNBA’s pay structure when the Aces signed Becky Hammon as head coach for $1 million.
Then, Cambage joined the Sparks, a team on which she had long set her sights on. Cambage, who said she had recently recovered from her third bout of Covid-19, was enduring the second-lowest scoring season ever of her WNBA. career. She was part of a Sparks rebuild under Derek Fisher, a former NBA player who was brought on as general manager. But the Sparks fired Fisher in June and replaced him with Williams, who also coached Cambage in Dallas.
Williams said he hopes Cambage has another opportunity to play.
“I think she has room right now to check the temperature of herself,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Sparks announced that Cambage had agreed to a contract divorce just after five months of Cambage signing with them. The six-foot-eight Australian averaged 13 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in 25 games this season while also holding onto the WNBA single-game scoring record with 53 points.
“It was a surprise — I didn’t know what really escalated it. A lot of it could have been things off the court, off floor, who knows. Having conversations with her afterward, it just felt it was good for her personally to make that move. All we can do as an organization is support that and her decisions and just move on, ” Fred Williams, the team’s interim
coach said at a media availability on Tuesday.
Cambage’s split with the Sparks is the third one with a WNBA team in just five years. Cambage, who grew up outside Melbourne, Australia, refuses to play for her home country after being accused of using racial slurs against opponents in the Tokyo Olympics. She has denied this.
Cambage was first drafted in 2011 for WNBA’s Tulsa Shock. She then took a four-season hiatus from the league before rejoining the team, which had relocated to Dallas and rebranded as the Wings.
After demanding a trade from Dallas after one year in a multi-year contract, she relocated to the Las Vegas Aces in 2019. Cambage sat out of the 2020 season because of Covid-19 concerns but managed to get the Aces to the WNBA semifinals in both 2019 and 2021. She left the team after the 2021 season, criticizing the WNBA’s pay structure when the Aces signed Becky Hammon as head coach for $1 million.
Then, Cambage joined the Sparks, a team on which she had long set her sights on. Cambage, who said she had recently recovered from her third bout of Covid-19, was enduring the second-lowest scoring season ever of her WNBA. career. She was part of a Sparks rebuild under Derek Fisher, a former NBA player who was brought on as general manager. But the Sparks fired Fisher in June and replaced him with Williams, who also coached Cambage in Dallas.
Williams said he hopes Cambage has another opportunity to play.
“I think she has room right now to check the temperature of herself,” he said.