Liz Cambage Is a Secret That Can’t Stay in Las Vegas

Liz Cambage had gathered her friends for a going-away party in Australia.

There was only one problem: The W.N.B.A. superstar didn’t know if she was actually leaving. At the time, in early May, Cambage’s rights still belonged to the Dallas Wings, a team she’d said she would no longer play for. But with training camp underway, the Wings hadn’t completed a deal to send Cambage elsewhere.

“I literally went into my going-away dinner like, I could still be here next week,” Cambage said. “If I am, cool, but let’s just act like I’m leaving.”

The day after the dinner, the Wings completed a trade with the Las Vegas Aces that changed the balance of power in the league. Cambage, 27, arrived in Las Vegas 48 hours later as a member of the W.N.B.A.’s newest championship contender. But she was wary: She had clashed with Aces Coach Bill Laimbeer last season. (She said she cursed at him as she shot a free throw.) And after working hard to give up alcohol and live a healthier, less party-centric life, she worried about moving to so-called Sin City.

“I still think the reason I did hurt my Achilles’ before the world championships,” Cambage said, referring to her ruptured Achilles’ tendon before the 2014 tournament, “is because I was drinking so much, and partying so much, and I wasn’t sleeping enough. I had a whole lot of life dramas going on. I was just using alcohol as an escape. But I’ve learned from it, and I know that it won’t suck me in.”

Source: The New York Times

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