Dearica Hamby’s pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against the WNBA’s Aces, explained

Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images

The Los Angeles Sparks three-time All Star is suing her former employer — the Las Vegas Aces — as well as the WNBA, alleging she experienced intimidation, discrimination, and harassment over her pregnancy, and that she was ultimately traded as a result of it.

Los Angeles Sparks All-Star Dearica Hamby filed a federal lawsuit against the Las Vegas Aces on Monday, detailing the “repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination, and retaliation” she faced after informing the Aces — the WNBA team she played for at the time — that she was pregnant.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Nevada, and is directed at both her former team, and the WNBA itself. Hamby is seeking compensation for the emotional and financial consequences of the mistreatment, which she alleges culminated in her getting traded from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

Back in 2022, after getting traded to Los Angeles, Hamby first turned to Instagram to publicly shed light on her experience.

“I was promised things to entice me to sign my contract extension that were not followed through on,” she wrote. “I was accused of signing my extension knowingly pregnant. This is false. I was told that I was ‘a question mark’ and that it was said that I said I would ‘get pregnant again’ and there was a concern for my level of commitment to the team.”

Hamby’s accusations were initially investigated by the WNBA over a year ago. The league didn’t publicly share the results of the investigation, but did announce that Aces head coach Becky Hammon would receive a two-game suspension, and that the organization would lose their 2025 first-round draft pick. The WNBA Players Association criticized that outcome, noting that it “missed the mark,” while Hamby’s legal team noted that the result “provided no meaningful redress to Plaintiff Hamby for the harm she suffered.”

There’s a lot to unpack as it relates this case, in part because the league’s protections for pregnant players are complex in their own right. It’s also noteworthy that it’s not the first time that a player has alleged mistreatment due to pregnancy. Skylar Diggins-Smith, for example, had a falling out with the Phoenix Mercury last season which she attributed to her pregnancy. Still, Hamby’s exact situation is pretty unique.

First — who is Dearica Hamby?

Dearica Hamby is a three-time WNBA All-Star and a forward on the Los Angeles Sparks — she’s a prolific rebounder and scorer who’s seemingly now hitting her prime at age 30. She’s also the mother of two kids: Amaya (7) and Legend (1).

Hamby has accumulated a long list of accolades during her 10 years as a professional basketball player. She won Sixth Woman of the Year in 2019 and 2020, and was named an All-Star in 2021, 2022, and 2024. She’s currently in the midst of a breakout season with the Sparks, and is averaging 19.4 points, 10 rebounds and 3.6 assists — all career highs.

Hamby was drafted by the the San Antonio Stars (a franchise that later became the Las Vegas Aces) and spent the first 8 years of her WNBA career with the organization, helping the franchise win its first-ever championship in 2022.

Most recently, she helped anchor the U.S. Olympic 3×3 basketball team that won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. It was also announced on Monday that she’d be playing in Unrivaled, the new professional 3v3 basketball league set to launch this winter.

What is Dearica Hamby accusing the Aces of?

The story began when Hamby got pregnant a few weeks after signing a two-year contract extension with the Aces in June, 2022.

She alleges that in addition to her official salary, the Aces front office promised her extra benefits, including agreeing to cover her daughter Amaya’s private school tuition costs “in the form of a ‘donation’ to Amaya’s school”, and promising her team-provided housing. (These benefits were termed “impermissible benefits” by the WNBA at the conclusion of the 2023 investigation).

The 18-page suit thoroughly outlines that the Aces — and head coach Becky Hammon, in particular — mistreated and discriminated against Hamby upon learning that she was pregnant. It lists a slew of examples, ranging from not inviting her to the White House for the Aces championship celebration to attempting to wrongfully obtain medical records from her.

It also alleges that her pregnancy was the reason for her getting traded to Los Angeles, a move that she claims had a myriad of negative financial consequences.

What is the timeline of Hamby’s allegations against the Aces?

What we definitively know is that on June 28, 2022 — in the midst of the WNBA season — Dearica Hamby signed a two-year contract extension with the Aces, preventing her from entering free agency.

Then, in late July, Hamby alleges that she learned she was pregnant for the second time. She told Becky Hammon the news in early August, who informed Aces General Manager Natalie Williams shortly after.

All of this was happening in the midst the regular season, which Hamby continued to play through. A few months later, she helped the Aces win the championship, albeit in a limited on-court role (she averaged just 8.5 minutes per game in the 2022 postseason). Then, on stage at the championship parade, Hamby announced to the world that she was pregnant.

According to the lawsuit, things changed after Hamby’s pregnancy was announced. “Hamby experienced notable changes in the way she was treated by Las Vegas Aces staff.”

First came the loss of the additional benefits that were supposed to come with her contract. In October, she was informed she had to give up the team-provided housing, and that she was not provided with any specific reason to do so. And, while she inquired about her daughter’s tuition, the franchise simply responded that “they were working on it.”

Central to the the lawsuit is a phone call between Hammon and Hamby that allegedly took place on Jan. 15, 2023. In this call, Hammon asked Hamby whether or not she planned her pregnancy, and when Hamby said she did not, Hammon told Hamby “that she was not taking proper precautions not to get pregnant,” according to the lawsuit.

Hammon also allegedly questioned whether Hamby would end up being ready for the beginning of the 2023 WNBA season. Notably, Hamby claims she twice asked, “You’re trading me because I’m pregnant?”, which Hammon never denied.

The trade was made official on Jan. 21st — the Aces sent Dearica Hamby to the Sparks for the rights to Amanda Zahui B. and an exchange of 2024 draft picks. She gave birth in March, and reported to Sparks training camp in April, subsequently playing in all 40 regular season games and averaging 8.9 points.

What is Dearica Hamby seeking?

According to the federal lawsuit, Dearica Hamby is seeking financial compensation as a result of the following:

Lost promotional and endorsement opportunities
Relocation to a more unfavorable tax environment
Denial of a chance to participate for a back-to-back championships and the reputational harm that came with that
Emotional harm as a result of the “unlawful discrimination”

The lawsuit delineates this: “Hamby’s trade to a less competitive team resulted in a loss of reputational prestige and brand value typically associated with being part of a two-time WNBA champion franchise. It also resulted in a loss of marketing and/or opportunities in Los Vegas Sports market that were not available to her in the Los Angeles sports market, a far more saturated endorsement market.”

What disciplinary action have the Aces already faced?

In May of 2023, the WNBA announced it was suspending Aces head coach Becky Hammon for two games and stripping the team of their 2025 first-round draft pick.

That was the result of two things: 1) the Aces promised “impermissible benefits” during contract extension negotiations, and 2) the Aces violated a Respect in the Workplace policy, with Hammon allegedly making disparaging comments to Hamby regarding her pregnancy.

The WNBA declined to release the complete findings of its investigation, so it’s not exactly clear what led to the decision to punish the Aces. The league did share that the process included interviewing 33 people and reviewing texts, email, and documents. But, Hamby’s team alleges that no Aces players were interviewed, and that the disciplinary action was insufficient.

The WNBA players’ union agreed, stating: “The league had an opportunity to send a clear message that it abides by and protects the provisions of the CBA, particularly those that we were most proud of — the provisions meant to support player parents.”

When the punishment was announced last spring, both the Aces and Hammon denied wrongdoing.

“We are committed to supporting all our players to the fullest extent allowed by the WNBA,” the Aces said in an official statement at the time. “Our actions have always been consistent with our responsibility to hold ourselves to the highest professional standards, and the facts we presented were consistent with these standards. The well-being of our players and their families has and will always be at the forefront of who we are.”

Hammon acknowledged that asking about Hamby’s pregnancy may have been a misstep, but she denied mistreatment and noted the trade was to make the Aces better — by offloading Hamby’s salary, the Aces were able to sign Candace Parker and Alysha Clark.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/NBAE via Getty Images

“I’m not invalidating her feelings,” Hammon said, per ESPN. “I’m sorry that they were hurt. My job is to have tough conversations. My job is to make the Aces better every year. And sometimes, that’s a hard process. This decision had everything to do with freeing up money to sign free agents. That’s all this was… This trade had to happen for the Las Vegas Aces to get better.

“As much as I could sit there and say, ‘That’s not how I deemed the conversation going,’ she deemed it another way. And for that, I do feel bad. Because I’m not that person. Inflicting pain or stress on anybody … it’s just not in me. It’s not my heart.”

What is the WNBA’s policy around pregnancy?

The players’ CBA, ratified in 2020, notably guarantees maternity leave with full pay. But, the CBA also requires players who expect pregnancy to interfere with their work to notify the team before entering new contracts or accepting restricted, core, or reserved qualifying offers — a provision that some have criticized as being in conflict with federal law.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 prohibits discrimination in employment because of sex and on the basis of sex, which is further defined as “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”

Because the WNBA’s 2023 investigation was never made public, it’s unclear whether the league found the Aces guilty of pregnancy discrimination.

In a press release, Hamby’s attorneys delineated their fundamental issue with what took place:

“The WNBA is, at its core, a workplace, and federal laws have long shielded pregnant women from discrimination on the job. The world champion Aces exiled Dearica Hamby for becoming pregnant and the WNBA responded with a light tap on the wrist. Every potential mother in the league is now on notice that childbirth could change their career prospects overnight. That can’t be right in one of the most prosperous and dynamic women’s professional sports leagues in America.”

What’s next in the lawsuit?

Hamby’s legal team has sent a summons to the Aces requiring an answer to the lawsuit. Hamby’s lawsuit consists of her allegations against the team. Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require the Aces respond to the allegations within 21 days of receiving the summons, not counting the day it was received. The parties can agree to extend that time as well. If the Aces do not respond in a timely manner, judgment by default would be entered against the organization.

The Aces will respond with their answer to the various allegations. From there, it will work its way through the federal court system with numerous pre-trial hearings and motions. The court system generally prefers settlements to trials, and so the judge assigned to the case will encourage negotiations between the parties to settle the case if at all possible.