Aces Coach Becky Hammon Suspended for Pregnancy Comments to Dearica Hamby

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. While the players’ union said the punishment did not go far enough, the Aces defended Hammon as a “caring human.”

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 an unnamed person had made “disgusting comments.” She said 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 named to the All-Star team 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 respond to a request for details about what Hammon told Hamby, but said in the suspension announcement that 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 W.N.B.A. did not respond to a question about how it settled on two games.

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 was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, during her first season with the Aces. 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 a statement on Tuesday, the Aces said they were committed to supporting players and “deeply disappointed” by the outcome of the investigation.

“The W.N.B.A.’s determinations about Becky Hammon are inconsistent with what we know and love about her,” the Aces said, adding that Hammon “forges close personal relationships with her players.”

The team added that it would “stand behind” Hammon as its coach.

In recent years, there has been a major push — by players, fans and league officials — for greater investment in the W.N.B.A., especially in benefits for parents. 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.

The fight for professional athletes who are also parents is still in its infancy.

In May 2022, Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir, an Icelandic soccer player, sued her former team of Lyon over its treatment during her pregnancy. The team did not pay her during her pregnancy, and it failed to uphold its “duty of care” while she was away from the club.

“No one was really checking on me, following up, seeing how I was doing mentally and physically, both as an employee, but also as a human being,” Gunnarsdottir wrote in a piece for The Players’ Tribune. “Basically, they had a responsibility to look after me, and they didn’t.”

Lyon was forced to pay her everything she was owed.

Pregnancy leave was only added to collective bargaining agreements for both the W.N.B.A. and the National Women’s Soccer League in the last few years. The N.W.S.L. agreement, signed in 2022, marked the introduction of eight weeks of paid leave for pregnancy or adoption. There were no previous guidelines for new parents.

Star power offers no protection for individual athletes, either. Allyson Felix, an 11-time Olympic medalist in track and field, and Serena Williams, who has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles in tennis, also had to fight for income protection after having children.

When Felix asked Nike not to dock her pay if she did not perform at her peak in the months surrounding childbirth, the company declined, she disclosed in May 2019. Three months later, Nike announced a new maternity policy for all sponsored athletes.

When Williams returned to the professional tour in early 2018, eight months after giving birth, her world ranking had dropped to No. 451 from No. 1 despite her record. She fought for players to have protected rankings, and within the year, the Women’s Tennis Association changed its rules for players returning from pregnancy, allowing them to use a special ranking for up to three years following the birth of a child.