Australian basketball legend Lauren Jackson is confident Liz Cambage will still compete in the Tokyo Olympics after initially threatening to boycott the games over perceived racial inequality in a promotional photo.

The 29-year-old Cambage blasted the lack of racial diversity in Australia's 'whitewashed' Olympics promotional photos leading toward this year's event.

'If I've said it once I've said it a million times. How am I meant to represent a country that doesn't even represent me?,' she wrote on Instagram with the hashtag 'whitewashedaustralia'.

Cambage, who has a Nigerian father and Australian mother, added: 'Australia wake the f**k up. I'm not playing these games anymore'.

The two-time Olympian later added she would 'sit-out' the Tokyo Games until she felt the inclusion issue was addressed.

Jackson - considered Australia's greatest female basketball player - praised Cambage for speaking out, but said she has full confidence she will still make it to the Olympics, which start on July 23.

When asked on Monday night by reporters if she hoped the issue would be sorted in time for the games, Jackson responded: 'Hope? I know it will.'

'High-performance has been in touch with all the athletes. Everything sorts itself out, I really believe that everything will work out. We've just got to let this play out,' she said.

'Liz is one of the finest players that we've ever had representing us. She has been a core part of the Opals for the past decade, and it would be fitting to see her on the dais in Tokyo.

'I really hope that she is a part of that group – she is very important to the team.'

Jackson said the Australian Olympic Committee are looking at 'constitutional change' and said she supports the right of any person to express their opinions in a respectful manner.

'Liz has got a platform and it is a very important issue, and I support her fighting to racial inequality,' she said.

Cambage has a history of organising boycotts over racial issues.

Last year she called for the Aboriginal flag to be included on team uniforms, and for Basketball Australia to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

When she told teammates she wasn't felling supported, they organised a boycott of team training to support her.

Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge slammed Cambage over her threat to sit out the Olympics.

Woodbridge, who won 16 grand slam doubles titles and Olympic gold, said Cambage's comments showed 'disrespect' towards the athletes who were pictured and added he believed she had gone about her public protest in the wrong way.

'My initial thought was, don't do it that way,' Woodbridge said on Channel 9's Sports Sunday program.

'Why do it that way? Why do it with the anger and the threats? You cannot threaten to pull out of representing your country, you've got the privilege to be there and to do something special.

'If you want to do something like that, why don't you do it the way Naomi Osaka did it? I mean, she changed the world. She didn't have to get out there and use language and threaten us all that we've done the wrong thing.

'I'd say, good on you for standing up for it but there are ways. We've got another great ambassador here in Australia we just spoke about, Ash Barty; she does it the right way. That's not her style.'

Barty is only the second Indigenous Australian to win a tennis grand slam title after Evonne Goolagong.

Osaka, whose mother is Japanese and father from Haiti, has spoken out about racial injustice.

'I just believe there was a bit of disrespect for the athletes in the photo, who rightfully deserved to be in that photo,' Woodbridge said on Sunday when responding to Cambage's comments.

Cambage continued her tirade on Saturday morning with another series of Instagram stories after her comments from the previous day stirred up a storm of media coverage and online debate.

'I do not care for a white man's opinion on racial issues. Never have, never will,' she wrote on Saturday over a video of her sticking her tongue out.

Another Saturday morning post showed a Facebook message exchange with a friend who offered to track down the IP addresses of trolls sending her abuse.

'Keep the threats coming, boys,' she captioned the screenshot.

Decorated Australian women's basketball coach Tom Maher said on Friday it was inappropriate for Cambage to 'make a big deal about pretty much nothing'.

'Was there a homosexual athlete represented? Was there a Chinese Australian athlete mentioned? I mean, where does it end?' he told The Daily Telegraph.

'If I was coach, I wouldn't entertain any threats at all. If she wants to come, she can come, but if she told me she was going to boycott I'd say 'good luck, see you later'.'

Maher coached Australia's women's team to bronze at the 1996 Olympics and to silver at the Sydney event four years later.

There is no suggestion from Daily Mail Australia that Maher is the coach Cambage was referring to in her post.

One of the images shared by Cambage was an ad from Olympic partner and underwear supplier Jockey, which featured white athletes.

The other was an Australian uniform reveal featuring Indigenous Rugby Sevens player Maurice Longbottom which she captioned: 'fake tan doesn't equal diversity'.

Following backlash, Cambage said on Friday evening she was clearly not talking about the rugby star.

'I know who Maurice Longbottom is. I wasn't saying he had fake tan on - I'm talking about the rest of the photo. One token person of colour in a photo is not good enough AOC,' she said.

'The whitewashing is sad. Your black and Indigenous athletes lead (your sporting achievements) and you don't use them at all.

'And Jockey Australia you knew exactly what you were doing. You need me to send you a list of all the POC athletes that are trying to make it to the Olympics. That you could use? I could do it and I'm not even in the country.'

The Australian Olympic Committee issued an apology on Friday but Cambage then questioned why she needed to hold them to account from the other side of the world.

She added an apology was easy but demanded tangible action from Olympic bosses to represent all races.

'Maurice Longbottom I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart the media used you as a tool to defer from the real issue that Australia is so ignorant it's embarrassing,' she said.

'We have a diversity issue, we have an inclusion issue, and we have a visibility issue for kids growing up that don't see people like them on tv anywhere.

'And Australia, if you have an issue with my words, you are the issue and you can kiss my black a**.'

She also shared footage of Cathy Freeman's famous 400m win at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 to point out that one of Australia's greatest sporting moments involved a woman of colour.

The AOC said in their apology statement they 'acknowledged' the point made by the Cambage.

'The athletes made available to Jockey could and should have better reflected the rich diversity of athletes who represent Australia at the Olympic Games,' the statement read.

'The AOC does however have a very proud history of celebrating and promoting diversity in all its forms. From Indigenous reconciliation, people of colour, gender equality and all forms of diversity, the AOC is rightly proud of its record.'

The committee said there would be further photo shoots to reflect a broader diversity of athletes.

The AOC acknowledges Liz Cambage's point with regard to this particular photo shoot.

The athletes made available to Jockey could and should have better reflected the rich diversity of athletes who represent Australia at the Olympic Games.

The AOC does however have a very proud history of celebrating and promoting diversity in all its forms. From Indigenous reconciliation, people of colour, gender equality and all forms of diversity, the AOC is rightly proud of its record.

Tomorrow the Annual General Meeting will consider a change to the AOC Constitution which will ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island representation on our Athletes' Commission. Next month we will launch our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan following lengthy consultation with our Indigenous Advisory Committee.

Our Olympic Team for Tokyo, as it did in Rio, will consist of more women than men.

We proudly defend our track record on diversity and there will be further photo shoots that reflect our broad diversity of athletes.

With regard to this photo shoot however, we acknowledge while proud of the athletes involved and proud of our association with Jockey, it should have better reflected the diversity of our Team.

The Olympic Charter commits us all to oppose any form of discrimination.

'With regard to this photo shoot however, we acknowledge while proud of the athletes involved and proud of our association with Jockey, it should have better reflected the diversity of our Team,' a spokesperson said.

Cambage is recognised as one of Australia's best basketballers and has been vocal about racial equality in the past.

During the Black Lives Matter movement she called on Australians to be more supportive and educated on the issue.

'Until you start teaching the real history of Australia, until you start respecting the traditional land owners of this country, you do not care about black lives,' she said.

'Until I see more diversity and more inclusion in this country, you do not care about black lives. Go delete the square.'

She also said she 'didn't feel her worth' until she left Australia after dealing with years of racism.

Cambage helped the Australian Opals win bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and gold at the 2018 Commonwealth games.

She was born in London to a Nigerian father and Australian mother, and moved to Coffs Harbour as a child after her parents split.