Liz Cambage

Cambage played her junior basketball with Dandenong Rangers, joining their WNBL team for the 2007–08 season. In 2007, she accepted a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS),[13][14] and played for the AIS team, based in Canberra, in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL), for the remainder for the 2007–08 season and the following one[6][13][15][16][17] In a November 2008 90–62 loss to the Adelaide Lightning, she scored 11 points, had 12 rebounds and fouled out of the game.[17]

In 2009/2010 Cambage returned to Melbourne to play with the Bulleen Boomers, and in her first season with the club made the WNBL all-star five.[10][15][18] Cambage played in all 22 WNBL games in the 2009/2010 season.[10] She finished the regular season with 22.3 points a game and 2.8 blocks a game, leading the league in both categories. She also finished the season with a 59.6% field goal accuracy, another area where she led the league.[10] In weeks 5 and 6 of the 2010/2011 season, she was named the Player of the Round, and she was the Player of the Month in November and December.[10][19] In an October 2011 game against the West Coast Waves, she scored 27 points while playing 29 minutes in a 104–79 win for Bulleen.[20] By May 2012, she had not re-signed with the team, one of the few Opals players in the league to not have made a commitment to their WNBL team one way or another.[21]

Cambage celebrates her defense of Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx

In March 2011, Cambage expressed a reluctance to play for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team that drafted her, the Tulsa Shock, stating, "I don't want to play at Tulsa, I've made that clear. They want to make me a franchise player, but I'm not going to the WNBA for that. I'm going there to learn and improve my game. But what can you do?"[22] She played in the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game.[23]

Liz Cambage 2011 WNBA All-Star VIP Party

After the 2012 Summer Olympics Campaign, Cambage was due to head back to the United States to complete her season with Tulsa Shock in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), but announced on the morning her flight was due to leave, 27 August 2012, that she would not be returning to the States to finish the 2012 season with Tulsa Shock. Her agent released a statement saying "Over the past 6 months Liz has been involved with the Australian National Team as they prepared for the 2012 London Olympics. She has returned from the Olympic campaign physically exhausted and is in need of some recovery time. Unfortunately this will make her unavailable for the remaining few weeks of the WNBA season. We are aware that this is an unfortunate situation and we appreciate and thank Tulsa Shock for their understanding."[24]

Cambage returned to play for the Shock for the 2013 season, but did not return to the WNBA for five years after.[25] In February 2018, she signed a multi-year contract with the Dallas Wings.[26]

Cambage playing for Dallas in 2018

In June 2012, Cambage signed with Zheijang Chouzhou basketball club in China, reportedly for a salary of $400,000 (Australian dollars). This made her one of the highest-paid female basketballers in the world.[27] Yet in an article in the Australian newspaper The Age published on 8 March 2019, Cambage bemoaned being poorly compensated and unable to meet her mortgage payments, noting that she had not been paid since September 2018 after an injury prevented her from playing in China. She was quoted as saying: "It's funny, we make all these sacrifices for our nation, but are we getting looked after properly at the end of the day?"[28]

In February 2018, Cambage signed a multi-year contract with the Dallas Wings.[29] On 17 July 2018, in a game against the New York Liberty, Cambage scored a WNBA record 53 points. Her team, the Dallas Wings, won the game 104–87.[30] Cambage would be voted into the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game, making it her second all-star appearance. Following her 53 point performance, she scored 35 points in a 90–81 victory over the Washington Mystics making it the highest two-game point total in league history.[31] By the end of the season, Cambage led the league in scoring and the Wings finished with a 15–19 record as the number 8 seed in the league. In the first round elimination game, the Wings lost 101–83 to the Phoenix Mercury. On 22 January 2019 Cambage requested a trade from the Wings.[32] On May 16, 2019 she was traded to the Las Vegas Aces. During the 2019 season, Cambage would be voted into the All-Star Game, making it her third all-star appearance. By the end of the season, the Aces finished 21-13 and the number 4 seed, receiving a bye to the second round. In the second round elimination game, the Aces would advance to the semi-finals after defeating the Chicago Sky 93-92 off a miraculous play by teammate Dearica Hamby in which she came up with a steal and nailed a desperation three-pointer from half court. In the semi-finals, the Aces playoff run would come to an end as they were defeated by the eventual champions Washington Mystics in four games.