Becky Hammon doubled down on her denials Sunday night.
In their second game back from the Olympic break, Hammon’s Aces hosted the Sparks. Los Angeles guard Dearica Hamby is suing the Aces, her former team, and the WNBA in a discrimination suit filed last week.
“Here’s some facts,” Hammon said in her postgame presser. “I’ve been in either the WNBA or the NBA for now 25 years. I’ve never had an HR complaint. Never, not once. I still didn’t, actually, because Dearica didn’t file any. She didn’t file with the players’ union, she didn’t file with the WNBA. Those are facts. It’s also factual that nobody made a call about trading her until Atlanta called us in January [2023]. That’s a fact. So … it just didn’t happen. I’m sorry, the bullying? I spoke with her every day. If she wanted to practice, she practiced. If she didn’t, she didn’t. Over-the-top care, actually. Over-the-top care.”
Hamby filed a federal suit Aug. 12, claiming the Aces mistreated and traded her because of her pregnancy, and that the league investigation did not go far enough to punish the team or make it up to her. The league in May 2023 punished Las Vegas by suspending Hammon for two games without pay for “comments made by Hammon to Hamby in connection with Hamby’s recent pregnancy.” The team also lost its 2025 first-round draft pick for promises of impermissible benefits it made to Hamby, which the suit claims the team never delivered.
The suit alleges Hamby “experienced notable changes in the way she was treated by Las Vegas Aces staff” after she announced her pregnancy, and that Hammon made it clear that her pregnancy was the reason for the trade.
Hammon has denied Hamby’s pregnancy caused the trade since it happened, saying in May 2023: “We made the decision to move Hamby because we could get three bodies in her one contract, and we wanted to get three more people in. I think it’s very evident [with] who we signed on why we made the move.” The Aces traded Hamby and a 2024 first-round pick for a 2024 second-round pick and Amanda Zahui B., whom the team later traded to the Washington Mystics the next month for two second-round picks. The team signed Candace Parker, Alysha Clark, and Cayla George in free agency.
“It came down to math in business. That’s all it was. Nothing personal,” Hammon said. “I had a great relationship with Hamby the whole time. Which is why she probably felt the way she did. You know, it feels like a betrayal. But like I said, it’s a crappy part of my job, but somebody’s got to be the bearer of bad news.”
An Aces spokesperson told ESPN after Hamby’s filing that the team continues to “stand behind our statement on May 16, 2023, made at the conclusion of the WNBA’s investigation into this matter. Given that this is an ongoing litigation, the Aces will have no further comment at this time.” The statement in reference disagreed with the findings of the investigation.
“The Las Vegas Aces are deeply disappointed by the outcome of the WNBA investigation. … 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 team’s 2023 statement read. “The WNBA’s determinations about Becky Hammon are inconsistent with what we know and love about her. Becky is a caring human being who forges close personal relationships with her players. We stand behind Coach Hammon as she continues to lead the Las Vegas Aces.”
The statement also said that, “as expected,” the league didn’t find any violations by the team during 2023 free agency or paying players “under the table” to skirt around salary cap restrictions. The statement did not acknowledge the “promises of impermissible benefits in connection with negotiations for an extension of then Aces player Dearica Hamby’s player contract” mentioned in the WNBA investigation, which the league said was the reason for taking away the team’s 2025 first-round pick.
