Liz Cambage branded Nigerian players ‘monkeys’ during a vicious five-minute meltdown in Las Vegas that led to the basketball superstar exiting on fellow Australian Opals ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

A special investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has obtained video which clearly shows Cambage elbowing his Nigerian opponent in the head during a closed-door practice match in Las Vegas setting off a chain of shocking events.

In the ensuing chaos, Cambage slaps another Nigerian player in the face and racially vilifies the entire African team by calling them “monkeys” and telling them to “go back to your third world country“.

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Embarrassed Australian team officials were forced to call off the practice match before the end of the second quarter.

Nigerian players who spoke at this special inquiry on the condition that their identities not be revealed claimed to have heard Cambage say “go back to your third world country” and called them “monkeys”.

“That’s what I remember, the term monkeys, yes. and go back where you came from,” said a Nigerian player. “She definitely used monkeys or apes.”

Another player recounted this investigation: “I was on the pitch. She definitely said to go back to your third world country. I didn’t hear it, but (teammates) confirmed that she called us monkeys.

The Sunday Telegraph The inquest also revealed that Cambage told the Nigerian players before the practice match that she wanted to play for Nigeria because her Australian teammates were racist.

An Opals player who attended camp in Las Vegas in June last year said Cambage’s outburst pushed the team to breaking point and broke the camel’s back.

“There had been so many behavioral issues that had happened before that we could write a book, but this (Vegas) incident turned out to be the last straw that turned out to be the worst.”

Cambage, whose father is Nigerian, apologized to the African team a day later but it was not well received by all the players.

“I think it was bullshit. I don’t think it’s a sincere apology,” said a Nigerian player.

Another player thinks Cambage showed no remorse.

“Although she was Australian, we knew she was half Nigerian, so before it was like she was one of us.

“That was another thing to cut deep, for her to do this and show no remorse at all.”

The Australian and Nigerian players have decided to break their silence after Cambage took aim at his former Opals teammates in a recent interview with ABC Sport.

Cambage, who now plays with the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA, said at a preseason media event that she now feels “protected on a level that the Opals, or Team Australia, didn’t give me. have ever given,” and said she never felt. the Opals wanted it “to be the best it could be”.

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