Sparks' Liz Cambage denies directing racial slur at Nigerian team during pre-Olympic scrimmage in Las Vegas

Los Angeles Sparks center Liz Cambage pushed back Sunday against a report from an Australian newspaper that she directed a racial slur toward the Nigerian women's basketball team during a pre-Olympic scrimmage last year in Las Vegas.

«The incident that took place in the pre-Olympic scrimmage with the Nigerian national team was handled privately almost a year ago,» Cambage, who was playing for the Australian women's national team at the time, wrote Sunday night in a statement posted to Instagram. «I am very disappointed and hurt by the events and accusations that have unfolded in the Australian media. The account of what took place is inaccurate and misleading. I did not use the racial slur toward the Nigerian team that has been circulating.»

The report, published over the weekend in The Sunday Telegraph, a subsidiary of News Corp, cited two anonymous members of the Nigerian team who said they heard Cambage refer to them as «monkeys» during the closed-door scrimmage at UNLV. A third player told the paper that Cambage also said, «Go back to your third world country.»

Cambage, whose father is Nigerian, played several years for the Australian women's basketball team, the Opals.

News Corp Australia said it obtained video from the scrimmage — held on July 13, 2021, the day before the WNBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas — that showed Cambage elbowing one Nigerian opponent in the head and neck, before a timeout is called and Cambage is taken out of the game. According to the newspaper's description of the video, Cambage then returned to the game and got tangled up on an ensuing play with another Nigerian player, whom she slapped. As Cambage walked to the bench after being subbed out, that same Nigerian player came up behind Cambage