—CAMBAGE
44 SLAMONLINE.COM
Wings to a playoff berth and, later, her
country to a silver-medal finish at the
FIBA World Cup. Pushing her body to the
limit, Cambage was diagnosed with
tendonitis and bursitis in her left Achilles
and had to stay off the court for months.
In January, she requested a trade fromthe Wings. Come May, the Aces had
already begun training camp and
Cambage was still unsure about her
future in the league.
“It was so on-and-off for a good four
weeks, and I just had enough. I wasn’t
sleeping. I wasn’t eating,” Cambagemany different things that we can pick
teams apart.”
Despite the high expectations, the
Aces needed some time to find their
footing early in the season. Wilson and
Cambage, who were No. 1 and No. 2 in
usage rate last year, are unselfishly
learning to play with each other.
Cambage is admittedly still learning the
teams’ plays. And both sustained injuries
while playing overseas and weren’t
100 percent to start the season. But
the duo is hardly feeling any pressure.
They’ve overcome significant obstacles
in their lives that have given them a
steely resilience that they’re applying to
their profession.
During her junior season with the
Gamecocks, Wilson struggled to find the
will to play basketball after her
grandmother passed away. But she
persevered, dedicating the season to the
woman who had once told her, “God
didn’t put you on this earth to be normal.”
The 6-4 forward finished her season by
cutting down the nets after the 2017
NCAA national championship game.
“There have been plenty of times
where I’ve probably been in a dark place
and it was just a struggle for me, and I
prayed my way out of it, and now look at
me,” Wilson says. “[There] will be times
when a shot’s not falling or something’s
not going on. But then you look at it and
you’re like, OK, how can I still produce for
my team?”
Cambage was drafted to the Tulsa
Shock as a 19-year-old and endured
a rookie season fraught with racism,
cruelty from teammates and seemingly
endless losses—including a streak of
20 straight. Every day, she would cry to
her mother and agent over the phone.
Unhappy with her situation in the WNBA,
she would spend four seasons away from
the league, eventually overcoming bouts
of depression to become a mentor to her
younger teammates. She became the
role model she never had.
“The hardest of battles make the
strongest of warriors. Without my dark
days, without my hard times, I wouldn’t
be the person I am today, and I wouldn’t
be here,” Cambage says. “If I got drafted
to a team I love, and everything went my
way, and this and that, it would have nev-
er made me this strong, dominant player
I am today who wants to help rookies and
help the younger players and generations
coming into the sport. I’m so grateful for
all the hard times I’ve been through, and
that’s what makes me.”
Last season, Cambage led the Dallas
“THIS IS A’JA’S SECOND YEAR, AND
SHE PLAYS LIKE A VET. EVEN HER
ROOKIE YEAR, IT DIDN’T LOOK ANYTHING
LIKE A ROOKIE YEAR.”