Los Angeles Sparks All-Star Dearica Hamby Federal lawsuit Speaking to the Las Vegas Ace on Monday, she detailed the “repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination and retaliation” she faced after reporting the incident to the Ace. WNBA She told the team she was on at the time that she was pregnant.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, is against her former team and the WNBA itself. Hamby seeks damages for mental and financial damages caused by the abuse that led to her move from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
After being traded to Los Angeles in 2022, Hamby publicly opened up about his experience for the first time on Instagram.
“Several promises were made to entice me to sign a contract extension which were never followed through on,” she wrote. “I was accused of signing the extension knowing I was pregnant, which is false. I was told I was a ‘question mark,’ that I would ‘get pregnant again,’ and there were concerns about my level of commitment to the team.”
Hamby’s accusation Initially investigated The WNBA decided to investigate the matter more than a year ago. The league did not make the results of its investigation public, but announced that Aces head coach Becky Hammon would be suspended for two games and the organization would lose its first-round draft pick in 2025. The WNBA Players Association criticized the findings, saying:Missed the target,However, Hamby’s lawyers noted that the ruling “failed to provide meaningful relief for the damages suffered by Plaintiff Hamby.”
There’s a lot to unravel about this case, in part because the league’s protections for pregnant players are themselves complicated. It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first player to allege pregnancy-related abuse. Skylar Diggins-Smith, for example, had a feud with the Phoenix Mercury last season. She blamed it on pregnancyStill, the Humvee situation is very unique.
Firstly, who is Dearrica Hamby?
Dearica Hamby is a three-time WNBA All-Star and forward for the Los Angeles Sparks. She’s an accomplished rebounder and scorer who appears to be in the prime of her career at age 30. She’s also the mother of two children, Amaya (7) and Legend (1).
Hamby has earned numerous accolades during her 10 years as a professional basketball player, including Sixth Woman of the Year honors in 2019 and 2020 and All-Star selection in 2021, 2022 and 2024. She is currently in the midst of a breakout season with the Sparks, averaging 19.4 points, 10 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, all career highs.
Hamby was drafted by the San Antonio Stars (the team that would later become the Las Vegas Aces) and spent the first eight years of her WNBA career with the team, helping them win their first-ever championship in 2022.
He most recently anchored the U.S. Olympic 3×3 basketball team that won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, and it was announced Monday that he will also play in Unrivaled, a new professional 3v3 basketball league set to launch this winter.
Why is Dearrica Hamby accusing the Aces of this?
The story began when Hamby became pregnant just weeks after signing a two-year contract extension with the Aces in June 2022.
In addition to her official salary, she alleges that the Aces front office promised her additional benefits, including covering her daughter Amaya’s private school tuition “in the form of a ‘donation’ to Amaya’s school” and promising team-provided housing (these benefits were called “unauthorized benefits” by the WNBA at the conclusion of its investigation in 2023).
of 18-page lawsuit The report details how the Aces, and specifically head coach Becky Hammon, mistreated and discriminated against Hamby after learning of her pregnancy. The report lists numerous examples, including not inviting her to the White House for an Aces championship celebration and improperly attempting to obtain her medical records.
Also, her pregnancy of She moved to Los Angeles because, she claims, the move came with a number of negative financial consequences.
What is the timeline of Hamby’s allegations against Ace?
All we know for sure is that on June 28, 2022, in the middle of the WNBA season, Dearica Hamby signed a two-year contract extension with the Aces, making her ineligible to become a free agent.
Hamby claims she then found out she was pregnant for a second time in late July. She told Becky Hammon in early August, who then told Aces general manager Natalie Williams shortly thereafter.
All of this happened in the middle of a regular season in which Hamby played a game that lasted until a few months later, when she helped the Aces win a championship but had a limited role on the court (she averaged just 8.5 minutes per game in the 2022 postseason) and then appeared on stage during the championship parade. Hamby announced to the world that she was pregnant..
According to the lawsuit:However, things changed after Hamby’s pregnancy was announced: “Hamby experienced a noticeable change in the way she was treated by the Las Vegas Aces staff.”
First, the extra perks that were supposed to come with the contract were gone. In October, she was told she would have to give up her team-provided housing, but no specific reason was given for doing so. And when she inquired about her daughter’s tuition, the franchise simply said it was “working on it.”
At the center of the lawsuit is a phone call between Hammon and Hamby that allegedly took place on Jan. 15, 2023. In that call, Hammon asked Hamby if she was planning on getting pregnant, and when Hamby responded that she wasn’t, Hammon told Hamby that she “was not taking the proper precautions to avoid becoming pregnant,” the lawsuit states.
Hammon also allegedly questioned whether Hamby would be ready by the start of the 2023 WNBA season, specifically alleging that Hamby asked her twice, “Are you getting traded because you’re pregnant?”, a claim Hammon does not deny.
The trade was officially announced on January 21, when the Aces sent Dearica Hamby to the Sparks in exchange for the rights to Amanda Zahui B and a 2024 draft pick. She gave birth in March, attended Sparks training camp in April, and then appeared in all 40 regular season games, averaging 8.9 points.
What does Dearrica Hamby want?
According to the federal lawsuit, Dearrica Hamby seeks monetary damages for the following reasons:
- Loss of promotional or advertising opportunities
- Relocation to a less favorable tax environment
- Denial of the opportunity to compete in consecutive championships and the resulting damage to his reputation
- Mental damage caused by “illegal discrimination”
The lawsuit states: “Hamby’s departure to a less competitive team meant a loss of the prestige and brand value that typically comes with being part of a two-time WNBA champion franchise. It also meant a loss of marketing and opportunities in the Los Angeles sports market that she didn’t have in the Los Angeles area, a much more saturated sponsorship market.”
What disciplinary action have the Aces received already?
In May 2023, WNBA Announcement The move included suspending Aces head coach Becky Hammon for two games and stripping the team of its 2025 first-round draft pick.
This is the result of two things: 1) the Aces promising “impermissible benefits” during contract extension negotiations, and 2) the Aces allegedly violating the Respect in the Workplace policy when Hammon made derogatory remarks about Hamby’s pregnancy.
The WNBA did not release the full results of its investigation, so it’s unclear how it arrived at the decision to discipline the Aces. The league said its investigative process included interviews with 33 people and a review of texts, emails and documents. But Hamby’s team argues that none of the Aces were interviewed and that the disciplinary action was insufficient.
The WNBA players’ union agreed, saying, “The league has an opportunity to send a clear message that it will abide by and protect the provisions of the CBA, particularly those provisions designed to support the parents of our players, of whom we are most proud.”
When the punishment was announced last spring, Ace and Hammon denied any wrongdoing..
“We are committed to supporting all of our players to the fullest extent permitted by the WNBA,” the Aces said in an official statement at the time. “Our actions have always been consistent with our responsibility to maintain the highest professional standards, and the facts we have presented are consistent with those standards. The well-being of our players and their families has been and will continue to be our top priority.”
Hammon acknowledged that asking about Hamby’s pregnancy may have been a blunder, but denied any wrongdoing and noted the trade was meant to make the Aces stronger: By cutting Hamby’s salary, the Aces were able to sign Candace Parker and Alesha Clark.
Photo by Jeff Botari/NBAE via Getty Images
“I’m not dismissing her feelings,” Hammon said. From ESPN“It’s unfortunate that they had injuries. My job is to have the tough conversations. My job is to make the Aces better every year, and sometimes that’s a difficult process. This decision had everything to do with freeing up funds to sign a free agent. That’s it… This trade was necessary for the Las Vegas Aces to get better.
“I could sit there and say, ‘I didn’t think the conversation would go that way,’ but she thought differently. So I’m sorry, because that’s not who I am. I can’t cause anyone pain or stress. It doesn’t sit well with me.”
What is the WNBA’s pregnancy policy?
of Player CBAThe CBA, ratified in 2020, specifically guarantees full-pay maternity leave, but it also stipulates that a player who expects pregnancy will interfere with her job performance must notify her team before signing a new contract or accepting a restricted, core or reserved qualifying offer. Some criticize for violating federal law.
of Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 It prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex and gender, which is further defined as “based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related health condition.”
The WNBA’s 2023 investigation was not made public, so it is unclear whether the league found the A’s guilty of pregnancy discrimination.
In a press release, Hamby’s lawyers explained the fundamental issues with what happened:
“The WNBA is essentially a workplace, and federal law has long protected pregnant women from workplace discrimination. The world champion Aces banned Dearica Hamby for being pregnant, but the WNBA responded with a light punishment. Every potential mother in the league now knows that giving birth can change her career prospects overnight. This is not right in one of America’s most thriving and dynamic women’s professional sports leagues.”
What’s next for the lawsuit?
Hamby’s legal team has served Ace with a subpoena demanding that he respond to the lawsuit. Humvee lawsuit The lawsuit consists of her claims against the team. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12 requires Ace to respond to the claims within 21 days from the date she receives the summons, excluding the date she receives the summons. The parties can also agree to an extension of that period. If Ace does not respond within that time frame, a default judgment will be entered against the organization.
The ACE side will respond to the various claims. From there, the case will proceed through numerous pretrial hearings and motions in the federal court system. The court system generally favors settlement over trial, so the judge presiding over the case will encourage negotiations between the parties to encourage a settlement whenever possible.
