There’s a strange situation going on in the WNBA right now. Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby is suing the Las Vegas Aces and head coach Becky Hammon for trading her in 2023 because of her pregnancy.
As OutKick’s Alejandro Avila reported last week, Hamby filed suit on Monday, claiming that “the team and coach Becky Hammon gave her the cold shoulder and mistreated the star player after finding out she was pregnant.”
The Aces eventually traded Hamby to Los Angeles, which Hamby attributed to her pregnancy after helping the Aces win the 2022 WNBA Championship.
Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby is suing the Las Vegas Aces and was booed by the Vegas crowd during Sunday’s game.
(Candice Ward/Getty Images)
Hamby played in Las Vegas on Sunday for the first time since the lawsuit was filed.
Let’s just say the home team wasn’t too happy about a former player suing the team.
You can hear the crowd booing after the three-pointer. During one of her attempts at the free throw line, chants of “Hamby sucks” were also heard.
After the game, Aces head coach Becky Hammon addressed the lawsuit and the allegations against her.
“Here are some facts,” Hammon began. “I’ve been in the WNBA or the NBA for 25 years. I’ve never had a complaint about HR. Never, not once. Actually, I still haven’t had one because Dearica never filed one.”
“What? The bullying? I talked to her every day. If she wanted to train, she trained. If she didn’t, she didn’t. She actually got over-the-top coaching… that’s a fact,” Hammon concluded.
It’s a bizarre situation and there’s a lot more to come on top of this lawsuit.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how the league handles an ongoing legal battle involving a current player suing a current franchise and its current head coach.
Whatever the case, fans in Las Vegas don’t seem to appreciate Hamby filing a lawsuit against the team, even though she was a two-time All-Star for the Aces (2021 and 2022) and helped the team win the league championship in 2022.
But that’s life for professional athletes. Fans can be very fickle. Dearica Hamby learned that the hard way.
