American basketball player accuses Becky Hammon, who played for the Russian national team, of discrimination

Los Angeles Sparks forward Derica Hamby has filed a lawsuit against the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and her former team, the Las Vegas Strip, accusing them of discrimination.

In the lawsuit, which is publicly available, the 30-year-old alleges she faced discriminatory treatment when she officially announced to fans and the media that she was pregnant with her second child in September 2022. Hamby says Las Vegas general manager Natalie Williams told her, without explanation, that she had to vacate her club-provided housing.

The plaintiff also claims that in January 2023, she had a phone conversation with the club’s head coach, Becky Hammon, during which she accused Hamby of neglecting contraception and questioned the basketball player’s loyalty to the team. According to Hammon, the basketball player knew about her pregnancy when she signed a new contract with the club in late June 2022.

On January 21, 2023, Las Vegas announced that Hamby had been traded to the Los Angeles Sparks. On March 6 of that year, she gave birth to her second child.

The WNBA conducted a months-long investigation and suspended Hammon for two games in May 2023. Hamby was unhappy with the handling of the case and the WNBA’s decision, saying the league failed to communicate with other Las Vegas players as part of the investigation and failed to adequately punish either the team or the coach. Hammon told the media that Hamby’s transfer was not related to her pregnancy.

As a member of Las Vegas, Hamby won the 2022 WNBA Championship and, together with the US national team, a bronze medal in 3×3 basketball at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Hammon, 47, has been the head coach of Las Vegas since December 2021. The coach has twice led her team to the championship. As a player, Hammon played for the WNBA clubs New York Liberty, San Antonio Silver Stars, as well as for the Russian CSKA, Nadezhda, Sparta & K, and the Spanish Rivas Ecopolis, Ros Casares. In February 2008, the American basketball player received Russian citizenship. Together with the Russian national team, she became a bronze medalist at the Olympics and a silver medalist at the European Championship.