Former Aces player alleges discrimination in lawsuit against team, WNBA

Former Las Vegas Aces forward Dearica Hamby has filed a federal lawsuit against the team and the WNBA alleging discrimination based on her pregnancy.

Hamby’s lawyers claim she was discriminated against by the Aces for becoming pregnant with her second child while she was with the team and that the WNBA failed to take appropriate action.

“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,” Hamby’s attorneys said in a statement.

Hamby filed a complaint against the Aces and the WNBA with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in October 2023, claiming the Aces had created an “abusive and hostile” environment.

The complaint came after she was traded from the Aces to the Los Angeles Sparks in January 2023. Hamby said in a statement at the time she was traded because she “got pregnant again.”

As a result of the complaint, Aces coach Becky Hammon was suspended by the league for two games without pay, and the Aces were forced to relinquish their 2025 WNBA first-round draft pick.

“Every potential mother in the league is now on notice that childbirth could change their career prospects overnight,” Hamby’s attorneys said. “That can’t be right in one of the most prosperous and dynamic women’s professional sports leagues in America.”

Details about Hamby’s alleged mistreatment by the Aces and the WNBA’s alleged failure to appropriately punish the Aces were described in the lawsuit.

Hamby had signed a two-year contract extension, ending in 2025. Three weeks after she signed the extension, she found out she was pregnant.

Hamby made Aces staff aware of her pregnancy in August and publicly announced it in September, the lawsuit states.

Hamby said that after announcing she was pregnant, Aces General Manager Natalie Williams told her she needed to vacate her team-provided housing and was given no direct answer when she asked about school tuition for her daughter, Amaya, according to the lawsuit. Both housing and tuition were a part of Hamby’s contract.

The filing also details comments Hammon reportedly made to Hamby related to her pregnancy.

When Hammon asked Hamby if she had planned her pregnancy and Hamby said she did not, Hammon told her she was “not taking proper precautions to not get pregnant,” the lawsuit says.

Hammon questioned Hamby’s commitment to the team and called her a “question mark,” accused her of “not taking her off-season workouts seriously” and of signing her new contract knowing she was pregnant, the lawsuit alleges.

Hammon also said Hamby “didn’t hold up her end of the bargain” and that “no one expected her to get pregnant again,” the lawsuit alleges.

When Hamby found out she was being traded and asked Hammon if it was because she was pregnant, Hammon responded by saying, “What do you want me to do?” the lawsuit states.

Neither the Aces nor the league has responded to the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

Hammon denied similar claims in the 2023 complaint and said any ill feelings between the two came from Hamby being traded.

“I’ll take my little lump on the chin and keep it moving,” Hammon said in May 2023. “We’re bigger than this. It’s just not who the Aces are. It’s not who I am. And so, yeah, everybody’s disappointed in the situation, but at the end of the day, we know who we are and so we go to sleep every night in that truth.”

The lawsuit says the WNBA “did not provide meaningful redress” to address the situation and did not impose adequate punishment.

The lawsuit alleges that after Hamby was traded, the Aces took retaliatory actions, including directing Aces players to cease communication with Hamby.

The team also tried to wrongfully acquire her medical records and didn’t invite her on a visit to the White House to honor the WNBA championship team on which she was a member, the lawsuit alleges.

 

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