Liz Cambage had assembled her friends for a farewell party in Australia.
There was only one problem: the W.N.B.A. starlet had no idea if she was actually going. Cambage’s rights were still owned by the Dallas Wings, a team she had previously stated she would not play for. But, with training camp started, the Wings had yet to finalize an agreement to transfer Cambage elsewhere.
“I literally went into my going-away dinner like, I could still be here next week,” Cambage told reporters. “If I am, cool, but let’s just act like I’m leaving.”
The day following the meal, the Wings finalized a transaction with the Las Vegas Aces, altering the league’s power dynamics. Cambage, 27, landed in Las Vegas 48 hours later as part of the Western National Basketball Association’s newest championship challenger. But she was apprehensive because she had a disagreement with Aces coach Bill aimLbeer last season. (She claimed she cursed at him as she attempted a free throw.) And, after working hard to quit drinking and live a better, less party-centric lifestyle, she was concerned about moving to so-called Sin City.
“I still think the reason I did hurt my Achilles’ before the world championships,” Cambage stated, alluding to her torn Achilles’ tendon before the 2014 competition, “is because I was drinking and partying too much, and I wasn’t sleeping enough.” I had a lot of life dramas going on. I was just using alcohol to escape. But I’ve learnt from it, and I’m confident that it won’t pull me in.”
Her professional career began with the 2011 W.N.B.A. draft, which placed her with the Tulsa Shock as a 19-year-old navigating a new country and career. But, she said, it’s been a lifetime of bad fits, even as a 6-foot-8 center who has created impossible matchup problems for any opponent. She mentioned that getting from Melbourne to Tulsa required a connecting flight in Oklahoma City. A trip to Dallas, where the Shock relocated while preserving her rights, involved many aircraft transfers.
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