The Las Vegas Aces will start their title defense without head coach Becky Hammon, as the WNBA’s highest-paid coach will serve a two-game suspension to begin the season for violating the league’s Respect in the Workplace policies.
Along with the suspension of Hammon, the Aces will forfeit their 2025 first round pick (having already traded their 2024 pick) for a violation of impermissible benefits while negotiating an extension with Hamby. The punishment handed down by the league concludes a months long investigation into allegations from Hamby that she was “traumatized” by the way she was treated after being traded to the Sparks by the Aces following her announcement in the fall that she was pregnant.
Being traded is part of the business. Being lied to, bullied, manipulated, and discriminated against is not. I have had my character and work ethic attacked. I was promised things to entice me to sign my contract extension that were not followed through on. I was accused of signing my extension knowingly pregnant. This is false. I was told that I was ‘a question mark’ and that it was said that I said I would “get pregnant again” and there was a concern for my level of commitment to the team.
The league found that those comments apparently came from Hammon and were deemed a violation of league policies. The WNBA’s official statement does not expound on what was found beyond there being “comments made by Hammon to Hamby in connection with Hamby’s recent pregnancy.”
The Las Vegas Aces have been punished, per the W. pic.twitter.com/VdrS7fI9rV
— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) May 16, 2023
The investigation also looked into allegations the Aces were circumventing league rules about paying players and providing impermissible benefits this offseason as they landed Candace Parker and others to bolster their roster, but found no evidence of that being the case.