Australian national team contemplating Liz Cambage’s future, per report

The Australian national women’s basketball team is contemplating Aces All-Star center Liz Cambage’s future with the program.

Cambage was involved in a physical altercation during a private scrimmage against the Nigerian national team — along with was termed a charged verbal exchange.

A person with knowledge of the situation said Cambage “was not the aggressor at all.”

The Australian Olympic committee is aware of the incident and is awaiting a report, per ESPN.

“We’ve been informed by Basketball Australia that they are investigating an issue,” Australian chef de mission Ian Chesterman told ESPN. “We have not received any further report except for that. … So it will be a matter of them working through with Basketball Australia to see if there”s any resulting decisions that need to be made.”

Cambage convened with the national team last week in Las Vegas and missed two Aces games as a result. The 29-year-old was a WNBA All-Star for the fourth time this year, averaging 14.6 points and 8.9 rebounds for Las Vegas, which has the second best record in the league.

She didn’t play Wednesday in the All-Star game after sustaining a minor hip injury in practice with Australia. But she spoke after game about the prestige of representing Australia at the Olympics in Tokyo, noting that she wanted to win a gold medal to honor Australian basketball legend Lauren Jackson.

“To be an island on the other side of the world and still be top three in the world, like I don’t think people really respect Australia the way they should,” Cambage said. “We’re dogs down under, and I love representing my country more than anything.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.