NBBF wades in, distances self from Liz Cambage comments
The leadership of the Nigerian Basketball Federation have distanced themselves from the comments of controversial Australian player Liz Cambage about the country in a podcast.
In a podcast aired by Bleacher Report, Cambage revealed that she had been lied against by those who accused her of racially abusing D’Tigress players during a scrimmage between Nigeria and Australia ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She also revealed that she was in discussion with representatives of the Nigerian federation over a switch to represent the country internationally.
Cambage, who is half-Nigerian, was reported to have called D’Tigress players Monkeys during the scrimmage, asking them to return to their third-world country. She denied doing any of this on the podcast, revealing that certain people intended to distort the facts of the matter.
D’Tigress stars Promise Anukamara and Sarah Ogoke quickly debunked her statements, reiterating that she racially abused them during the game. They also revealed that she was not in talks with any representative of the NBBF over a switch and was lying about it.
Respected journalist Colin Udoh, however, revealed that Cambage had proposed to then-Head coach of the team Otis Hughley that she was interested in representing Nigeria in 2021, but the federation never made an attempt to formalise a switch for her and Hughley is no longer in charge of the team.
NBBF Vice-president Babs Ogunade revealed that there were no discussions held over the problematic player joining the national setup which has just won the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket for a fourth successive edition.
Cambage was met with a lot of backlash from Nigerian fans who followed the events from that scrimmage two years ago, and they made it clear that she will not be welcome to the D’Tigress setup.
