On Tuesday the 26th, the Los Angeles Sparks WNBA team announced that they had mutually agreed to a “contract divorce” just five months after the team recruited 30-year-old Liz Cambage. As a 6’8” Australian, she averaged 13 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 25 games this season and still holds the WNBA single-game scoring record with 53 points.
“It was a surprise — I didn’t know what really escalated it,” said Fred Williams, the team’s interim coach, on Tuesday. “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.”
This is Cambage’s third split with a WNBA team in five years. She also said she has “zero” interest in playing again for her home country. Cambage was accused of using a racial slur against opponents while playing for Australia in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics but she denied any accusations.
Though Cambage sat out the 2020 season because of Covid-19 health concerns, she and the Aces made the WNBA semifinals in 2019 and 2021. Cambage said she had recently recovered from her third round of Covid-19 and was enduring the second-lowest scoring season of her WNBA career.
“I had been living someone else’s dream, chasing that for a minute,” she told the New York Times in May. “But now I’ve realized that this has always been my dream, being here in L.A. and playing here.”
Williams said he hopes Cambage has another opportunity to play. For the team, he said, “it’s a new day, new atmosphere, for us in this gym.”
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“It was a surprise — I didn’t know what really escalated it,” said Fred Williams, the team’s interim coach, on Tuesday. “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.”
This is Cambage’s third split with a WNBA team in five years. She also said she has “zero” interest in playing again for her home country. Cambage was accused of using a racial slur against opponents while playing for Australia in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics but she denied any accusations.
Though Cambage sat out the 2020 season because of Covid-19 health concerns, she and the Aces made the WNBA semifinals in 2019 and 2021. Cambage said she had recently recovered from her third round of Covid-19 and was enduring the second-lowest scoring season of her WNBA career.
“I had been living someone else’s dream, chasing that for a minute,” she told the New York Times in May. “But now I’ve realized that this has always been my dream, being here in L.A. and playing here.”
Williams said he hopes Cambage has another opportunity to play. For the team, he said, “it’s a new day, new atmosphere, for us in this gym.”
Source article: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659265960481x917511396455570200/Liz%20Cambage%20and%20the%20Los%20Angeles%20Sparks%20Agree%20to%20a%20%E2%80%98Divorce%E2%80%99%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
