The W.N.B.A. on Tuesday suspended Las Vegas Aces Coach Becky Hammon for two games for comments she made to the All-Star forward Dearica Hamby about her pregnancy, but the players’ union said the punishment did not go far enough.
The Aces traded Hamby to the Los Angeles Sparks in January, just months after the Aces won a championship and Hamby signed a contract extension. At the time, Hamby wrote in a post on Instagram that someone, whom she did not identify, had made “disgusting comments.” She said that she had been falsely accused of signing a contract extension when she knew she was pregnant and that she was told she was being traded because “I wouldn’t be ready and we need bodies.”
She said her commitment to the team was also called into question, even though she pushed herself to work out during her pregnancy when it was “uncomfortable to walk.” Hamby won the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year Award in 2019 and 2020 and was an All-Star for the second time last season.
“The unprofessional and unethical way that I have been treated has been traumatizing,” Hamby wrote in January, adding that it was especially disappointing that her poor treatment came from women who are mothers and who preached “family, chemistry and women’s empowerment.”
Hamby, 29, announced the birth of her son, Legend, in March. She also has a 6-year-old daughter, Amaya.
The W.N.B.A. did not detail what Hammon told Hamby, but said Hammon’s comments violated its policy on respect in the workplace. The league also said the Aces would lose a first-round pick in the 2025 draft for promising Hamby unspecified impermissible benefits during contract negotiations.
On Tuesday, the W.N.B.A. players’ union said the penalties were “far from appropriate.”
“Where in this decision does this team or any other team across the league learn the lesson that respect in the workplace is the highest standard and a player’s dignity cannot be manipulated?” the union said.
In May 2021, Curt Miller, then the coach of the Connecticut Sun, was fined $10,000 and suspended for one game for a body-shaming comment he made about the weight of center Liz Cambage. Miller now coaches the Sparks.
Hammon’s two-game suspension is without pay, but the league did not announce a fine.
The union had called for an investigation after Hamby’s Instagram post on Jan. 21. On Feb. 8, the Aces said in a statement that the league had begun a formal investigation and that the team would cooperate.
Hammon, 46, played in the W.N.B.A. for 16 seasons and will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this summer. Before joining the Aces last year, she had spent eight seasons as an assistant coach with the N.B.A.’s San Antonio Spurs and was the first woman to be a full-time assistant in N.B.A. history. She was often rumored to be in consideration for head coaching jobs in the men’s league. The Aces owner Mark Davis trumpeted her hiring as an inspirational moment for girls because the team would be paying her over $1 million, more than any other coach in the league.
In recent years, there has been a major push — by players, fans and league officials — for greater investment in the W.N.B.A. The league’s latest collective bargaining agreement, signed in 2020, included a wave of new or increased motherhood-related benefits, including full pay during maternity leave, more spacious housing, a $5,000 child care stipend and benefits for adoption and fertility treatments.