Dearica Hamby, WNBA All-Star and newly minted Olympic bronze medalist, filed a lawsuit against the WNBA and the Las Vegas Aces for discrimination, her attorneys announced Monday.
Hamby is from Marietta and played high school basketball for Marietta and Norcross High. She played collegiately at Wake Forest and was the sixth overall pick in the 2015 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Stars. She played for the Stars, now the Las Vegas Aces, from 2015-22. She has played for the Los Angeles Sparks since 2023.
The federal lawsuit claims repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination and retaliation that culminated in January 2023 with the Aces trading Hamby because the star forward was pregnant.
Hamby is represented by Dana Sniegocki, Erin Norgaard, and Artur Davis of HKM Employment Attorneys.
According to the attorneys, “just days after helping the Aces win their first WNBA championship, Hamby publicly announced to fans and media that she was pregnant. She had notified Aces coach Becky Hammon and other coaching and training staff of her pregnancy in early August.
“When the promised school tuition came due, it was nowhere to be seen. She was forced to vacate the team-provided housing, and she faced bullying from Hammon who leveled a series of false accusations, criticized her pregnancy, and even questioned her commitment to the team. On one call with Hammon, Hamby twice asked, “You’re trading me because I’m pregnant?”
“Hammon never denied the accusation and instead responded “What do you want me to do?” On January 21, 2023, the Las Vegas Aces announced that Hamby had been traded to the Los Angeles Sparks.”
Hamby filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in September 2023 and received her “Notice of Right to Sue” from the EEOC on May 23, 2024.
Hamby was part of Team USA winning the bronze medal in the women’s 3x3 competition at the Paris Olympics. She won the WNBA championship with the Aces in 2022. She is a three-time WNBA All-Star in 2021, 2022 and 2024. She was a two-time Sixth Women of the Year in 2019 and 2020.
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