Liz Cambage said she thought she could pull it off. Play in the Olympics in London, go home to Australia for a quick rest, then hop on a plane for Tulsa and help the Shock finish out their WNBA schedule. And then head to China for another season, which starts in October.

But when it came time this week to leave for the United States, she couldn't do it. After two weeks of trumpeting Cambage's expected return for Thursday's game against Los Angeles, the Shock announced Tuesday that she actually wouldn't be coming back for the remainder of the 2012 season.

"The Olympics was a lot more than I expected. I didn't really expect to feel this low, and have no energy after it," Cambage said by phone from Australia on Wednesday. "My friends warned me that a lot of people suffer from what they call the post-Olympic depression. You're just training so hard for so long, and then it's over. I'm just energy-less, and it's been a struggle for me in the past couple of weeks."

Some WNBA fans won't buy this. They'll say the youthful Cambage -- she just turned 21 on Aug. 18 -- should have plenty of gas in her tank. They'll say she should have fulfilled her obligation to come to Tulsa whether she really "felt" like it or not.

But perhaps Cambage has learned from this experience to not commit to something if she isn't absolutely certain she'll do it. To that end, she isn't ready to say -- at least not now -- that she will play in the WNBA in 2013, either.

"You know, I'm only 21. I've got all the time in the world to come play in the WNBA," Cambage said. "It's the best league in the world. But I'm just taking it day-by-day. Now I'm focusing on China, and I could head back to the WNBA after that.

"It just depends what direction everything goes. I really want to go back to studying, too, and I'm pretty sure I can do a lot of it online. So hopefully, it all works out."

Just to make sure, I asked if that meant she won't make a decision on the 2013 WNBA season until after playing in China.

"Yeah, definitely," Cambage said. "Definitely."

This will sound alarm bells among Tulsa fans. Some will call even louder for the Shock -- to whom she's under contract until 2014 -- to look into trading Cambage. However, she also did say that if/when she returns to the WNBA, she believes she can be happy in Tulsa, where she admittedly had ups and downs during her 2011 rookie season.

"I think Tulsa is a great city," Cambage said. "When I was there, I met a lot of lovely people and made a lot of friends. It's quiet, but it helps you focus on basketball more. It's a smaller town, and everyone supports you there. That's why I loved the community there.

"They are still a young franchise, learning and growing. And I'd like to learn and grow with them."

So what to make of all this? First, credit Cambage for answering honestly about her current uncertainty about 2013. Whether you empathize or not, she does clearly sound emotionally weary. She readily admits this isn't really about physical fatigue.

"It's just very mental at the moment," she said. "I feel like I've had so much on my plate the last couple of years, that I really need this three-week break before I head off to China."

And preparing to play well in China is understandably her priority now. That's not an emotional decision, but a bottom-line one. Cambage signed earlier this summer with the Zhejiang Chouzhou club, which plays in Hangzhou. The deal reportedly is worth about $400,000 for this season.

The Chinese club sees the personable, outgoing, extroverted Cambage as a draw not just for her basketball ability. At 6 feet, 8 inches, she's noticeable anywhere, and she really will stand out in Hangzhou.

"I love China; I've played there a few times on Australian team trips," Cambage said. "And I know [Chicago's] Swin Cash has played in China, and she's talked to me about it. I know [Minnesota's] Maya Moore is headed there as well. So it's going to be a fun season. It will be a pretty big culture shock, but I've got to get ready for it."

'You have to go where the money is'

Of course, Tulsa last year was a culture shock for Cambage, too -- albeit one that didn't pay as well.

Which brings us to the economic realities of global women's professional basketball that are well-known to most WNBA followers, but might still puzzle the casual observers of the sport.

As Cambage said, there is no argument that the WNBA is the top league in terms of the concentration of talent, the majority of it American-born. The WNBA has the backing of the NBA -- although less than half of the 12 franchises are owned by NBA teams -- and a television deal with ESPN.

But it also has a salary-cap structure with the goal of building toward a completely solvent league and encouraging competitive parity among the franchises. The WNBA doesn't have owners who want to -- or are allowed to -- spend exorbitantly on select players.

Nor are WNBA owners motivated by the same sense of regional/city rivalries as might be the case in various places overseas. And WNBA teams aren't looked at as ego-boosting "indulgences" like some women's club programs are internationally.

Not to say WNBA owners don't have egos, just that they're in this business definitely hoping to make a profit in a sports-saturated American landscape. The end result is that while the summertime-based WNBA is the "best" league, it's certainly not the best-paying for elite players.

"I can make the same amount here in Australia if I wanted to," said Cambage, whose WNBA rookie salary in 2011 was about $46,756. "Some girls are making crazy amounts over in Europe. So it's hard. I think it's easier for Americans, because it's home for them, and the WNBA is their league. Coming over for me for three weeks when I'm in this situation is more of a tough gig."

Some might call Cambage spoiled or diva-ish for thinking this way, which I don't think is fair or pragmatic. This is how she earns a living, and she's hardly the first non-American player to have a less-than-concrete commitment to the WNBA. All the teams know this is a contractual possibility with any player, no matter where she's from: She might just opt to skip her WNBA season and paycheck.

(I fully admit I have higher expectations of WNBA loyalty for American players for the very reason Cambage mentioned: It is their league.)

If you had a much larger paycheck waiting elsewhere, what would you do? Add in two more very long flights, 10 more games in a different country, and then head to your better-paying job? Or just rest before that job? People are going to answer that different ways, theoretically. But in real life, most folks might very well do what Cambage is doing.

However, she made a mistake in not deciding much earlier that she would...