Former NBA star Andrew Bogut has taken aim at Liz Cambage after it was revealed she allegedly called Nigerian players ‘monkeys’ in an appalling on-field rant.
Liz Cambage shockingly walked out on the Australian Opals ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics following a closed-door practice match against Nigerian opponents in Las Vegas.
The incident left many unanswered questions, as Cambage’s Opals career was deemed over.
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It has now been revealed by the Sunday Telegraph that the half-Nigerian basketball player went on a vicious meltdown during the practice match.
Australian team officials had to call off the game after Cambage elbowed her Nigerian opponent in the head, and slapped another player across the face, sparking an on-court brawl that led to Cambage being king-hit by an opposing player.
Following the incident, she allegedly labelled the Nigerian players ‘monkeys’ and told them to ‘go back to your third world country’.
One player told the Sunday Telegraph: “She did say, 'control your monkeys' or something like that.
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“The stuff she was saying was ridiculous. It was uncalled for, it was dirty, and it was just a bad situation.”
Cambage had initially threatened to boycott the Olympics after claiming a promotional photoshoot did not represent the diversity of Australian athletes.
Cambage called the photos ‘whitewashed’ and lacking representation.
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Andrew Bogut called out Cambage’s comments for not taking in factors such as players of colour, Patty Mills and Ben Simmons being mid-season in the NBA at the time of the shoot.
Bogut has now taken to Twitter to call out the hypocrisy of Cambage.
Posting a screenshot of the investigation, he tweeted ‘The truth will always come to light, and it ain’t even dawn yet’ in reference to Opals captain Jenna O’Hea’s cryptic tweet on the situation earlier this month.
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Earlier this month, O’Hea had initially confirmed that Cambage had told Nigerian players to ‘go back to your third world country’.
In responding to comments on Twitter, Bogut said he wished to ‘point out the hypocrisy of someone who stands against racism’.
He also tweeted: “Big difference when you publicly advocate for something and say it's a huge problem in the world, then do that very thing.”
The former NBA champ spoke to 2GB earlier this month following O’Hea’s cryptic tweet.
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He said: “You’ve just got the PG version, there was much more than that — I’m just glad someone’s come out and said it.
“It was beyond despicable.”
Topics: Australia, Basketball, NBA