WNBA player Dearica Hamby files lawsuit against league and former team over alleged treatment during pregnancy

CNN
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Three-time WNBA All-Star Dearica Hamby filed a discrimination and unlawful retaliation lawsuit Monday against the league and her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, accusing the team of treating her unfairly because she was pregnant, according to a public relations firm hired by her lawyers.

The federal lawsuit comes after Hamby was subjected to “repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination and retaliation that culminated in January 2023 when the Aces traded Hamby (to the Los Angeles Sparks) because the star forward was pregnant,” the firm said in a statement.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

The WNBA “has taken no action to correct or address a gross violation” of Hamby’s “rights under federal and state anti-discrimination laws,” the complaint, filed in Nevada district court, says.

The WNBA is “aware of the complaint filed today” and officials are “reviewing the complaint,” a WNBA spokesperson said.

The team, which moved to Las Vegas from San Antonio in 2018 after being sold, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Hamby played for the organization from 2015 to 2022, winning a WNBA title in her final season. She signed a two-year contract extension in June 2022, just seven months before she was traded, according to the lawsuit.

Hamby first accused the Las Vegas Aces of wrongdoing shortly after she was traded in January 2023, claiming on social media that she was “lied to, bullied, manipulated and discriminated against” by the team before they traded her.

Hamby believes she was traded because of her pregnancy.

According to the lawsuit, Hamby discovered she was pregnant in mid-July 2022 — about three weeks after signing her extension with the Aces — and then informed head coach Becky Hammon and other team staff members of her pregnancy in early August 2022. She continued to play, won the WNBA championship with the Aces in September 2022 and, two days later, at a public celebration in Las Vegas, announced she was pregnant, the lawsuit says.

“After making her pregnancy public, Plaintiff Hamby experienced noticeable changes in the way she was treated by Las Vegas Aces staff,” the lawsuit states.

Around Jan. 15, 2023, the lawsuit alleges, Hammon told Hamby in a phone call that Hamby was a “question mark,” that the Aces “needed bodies” and that Hamby would not be ready to play in time for the 2023 season, for which the preseason would begin in April.

“In response, Hamby assured Hammon that she was committed to the team, that she would give birth during the offseason, and that she expected to be fully ready to play by the start of the preseason,” the lawsuit states.

Also during the call, Hammon “accused Plaintiff Hamby of signing her contract extension knowing she was pregnant, a false accusation Hamby denied,” and said Aces staff believed “Hamby would become pregnant again,” according to the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, Hamby asked Hammon twice during the call, “Are you trading me because I’m pregnant?” Hammon responded, according to the complaint, “What do you want me to do?”

“Hammon did not deny the accusation that Hamby was traded because she was pregnant,” the lawsuit says.

CNN has reached out to Hammon for comment.

In May 2023, Hammon told reporters: “(Her pregnancy) was not an issue, and that was never the reason we made the decision to move Hamby.

“We made the decision to move Hamby because we could get three players for her one contract… That was never an issue and that was never the reason she was traded. It just wasn’t the case.”

Hamby gave birth to her son, Legend, on March 6, 2023, according to the lawsuit, and reported to training camp with the Sparks on April 28, 2023. She played in all 40 regular-season games for the team, according to the lawsuit.

The WNBA investigated Hamby’s allegations after she filed a complaint in January 2023 and subsequently suspended Hammon for two games for violating league and team workplace policies. The WNBA also stripped the Aces of their 2025 first-round draft pick for impermissible benefits related to Hamby’s contract, but Hamby’s attorneys say the league has declined to release details of its investigation. A 2023 press release from the league said Hammon was suspended for “comments made by Hammon to Hamby in connection with Hamby’s recent pregnancy.”

“The WNBA is first and foremost a workplace, and federal law has long protected pregnant women from workplace discrimination. The world champion Aces exiled Dearica Hamby because she was pregnant, and the WNBA responded with a light slap on the wrist,” Hamby’s attorneys said in Monday’s statement.

“Every potential mother in the league is now aware that having a child could change their career prospects overnight. That can’t be the case in one of the most successful and dynamic women’s professional sports leagues in the United States.”

The WNBPA – the WNBA players’ union – said in 2023 that the WNBA’s handling of the situation “misses the mark.”

Asked for a statement regarding Hamby’s lawsuit Monday, WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael said: “We reiterate our previous position that in the 2020 collective bargaining agreement, players’ parents were granted protections ensuring that becoming a parent did not mean the end of a career.

“Clearly, these safeguards have not changed the nature of this activity. Any team can trade any player for any legitimate reason or no reason at all. But that reason can never be based on race, gender, sexual orientation, parental status or pregnancy status.”

Hamby, who was also twice named the WNBA’s Sixth Woman of the Year, is averaging 19.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this season — both top-10 stats — and was named to the All-Star Game for the third time.

Hamby recently won a bronze medal at the Olympics as a member of the U.S. women’s 3×3 basketball team. In June, she signed an extension with the Sparks that will keep her on the team through 2025.

“I am grateful to have found a home in Los Angeles with an ownership group and organization that believes in me and has been good to me since the day I arrived here,” Hamby said in a Sparks press release about the extension. “I look forward to continuing to build with my teammates and returning the Sparks to the level that has been historically established.”