Capitals coach Kristen Veal laments lost potential of former Opal Liz Cambage

Cambage was in the headlines this week after sitting down for a tell-all interview with Bleacher Report in which the former Opal confirmed she had explored her eligibility to represent Nigeria.

Cambage also denied reports in 2021 that she had used a racial slur against the Nigerian team during a scuffle in a pre-Olympics warm-up match.

A day after Cambage's recent interview, fresh footage was released of the physical and verbal altercations that happened in that game behind closed doors, showing the centre elbowing and slapping Nigerian players, before she was attacked herself.

It's all just the latest dramatic chapter in Cambage's turbulent basketball career, where multiple incidents of on and off-court drama has followed her success as a two-time WNBL champion, four-time WNBA All-Star, and Olympic bronze medallist with the Opals.

Cambage, 31, has a Nigerian father, but has only ever represented the Opals at international level until the 2021 incident. She withdrew from the last Olympics tilt citing mental health struggles and she has not played for the national team since.

Controversy continued for Cambage over the next few years in the WNBA and in mid-2022 she took a break from basketball. This year she returned in the Israeli league, but is nowhere near being back in the Opals' selection frame.

"At the end of the day, you can have 15 dedicated people in your squad, and one person that isn't aligned with that can undo all that good work, and that's where the Opals got to," Veal said of Cambage.

"If you look at the [Opals'] record, we've finished just as well in previous tournaments as we have with her. So it's made no difference not having her."

Veal recalls playing against Cambage when she was younger, and though there have been exceptions made for her in the past - such as missing a pre-Rio Olympics training camp to attend a music festival - the Capitals coach believes it got to a point where enough was enough.

"You're making exceptions or someone that is going to diminish the other members of the squad is not what we're about, and it's not going to be successful," Veal said.

"I think there's a tolerance time when people are young ... but then when you get to a certain age, and you've had enough experience and enough support, there's a time that you have to get in the boat and row with everyone else, and she just didn't do that."

Veal said should Cambage defect to Nigeria, her exit wouldn't be mourned by the Opals, but the bigger disappointment is the lost potential, where she could have been the next Lauren Jackson of Australian women's basketball.

"It doesn't matter if she's good for someone else," she said. "If she could have made us better then that's a loss, but she couldn't.

"She could have been equivalent to LJ talent wise maybe, but LJ had the X-factor in everything else. LJ may have gone about it like a very direct, determined superstar, but it was always about winning for the team.

"That's why we could jump on her back and have so much success and Liz is comparative talent, but a different person."

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