WNBA’s new CBA includes rule that Dearica Hamby fought for | Aces

For three years after being traded from the Las Vegas Aces while pregnant, Dearica Hamby made choices she believed would make a difference for other working mothers.

In the hours after the WNBA released a document outlining key elements of its new collective bargaining agreement on Saturday, Hamby, who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks, received an outpouring of messages that reminded her she was right.

“This is because of you,” her lawyer wrote in one of them.

Hamby immediately knew what those words meant, just like she didn’t need to wait until she had read all the way through the recently released document with CBA details to understand the final line.

“Teams must obtain player consent before trading a pregnant player,” the last sentence of the two-page document read.

It’s a change that social media quickly aligned to call “The Dearica Hamby Rule” — a nickname backed by a difficult experience that Hamby finally gave herself a chance to reflect on in an exclusive interview with the Review-Journal on Sunday.

“Obviously, I try not to speak on it too much. I’m grateful and happy that there’s a change that has been made,” Hamby said. “At the end of the day, there was a lot of positivity and growth from all sides. And that was able to come into play.”

‘This can’t happen again’

Hamby was a part of the Aces organization for eight seasons (2015 to 2022), spanning to when they were the San Antonio Stars.

She still remembers the four words she emphasized in her first meeting with the WNBPA after she was traded: “This can’t happen again.”

Even then, Hamby “understood both sides of the situation,” she recalled. But she didn’t want to see it replicated at anyone else’s expense.

“I’m just happy to see it was able to be translated and a solution was able to be found,” she said.

She gave birth to her daughter, Amaya, in February 2017 and returned to the court six weeks later. She was prepared to do the same thing for the Aces when she learned she was pregnant with her son, Legend, in 2023, only to be traded to the Sparks.

Shortly after the trade, Hamby alleged in a social media post that she was lied to, bullied, manipulated and discriminated against. In August 2024, she filed a federal lawsuit against the Aces and the WNBA.

The details are public record, with Hamby saying the Aces accused her of signing a two-year extension in June 2022 while knowing she was pregnant, though Hamby claimed in court records that she learned she was pregnant in July.

Hamby also alleged that coach Becky Hammon questioned her “commitment and dedication” to the team, leading Hamby to assure Hammon that she would be ready to play by April.

As a result of an investigation launched by the league, the Aces lost their 2025 first-round pick and Hammon was suspended for the first two games of the 2023 season.

The Aces were the only remaining defendant in Hamby’s lawsuit by May 2025.

With a jury trial looming, both parties agreed to move on in December of that year.

The court filing said the parties “resolved this matter and agree to dismiss (it) in its entirety.”

Hamby isn’t focused on the past as much as she is on the progress in the recent CBA, which will now recognize pregnancy as a protected class. It will also feature “expanded family planning benefits for players and their spouses/partners,” the league said.

“I think the situation that happened was unfamiliar to everybody,” Hamby said. “But when you go back and read the old CBA, there’s just so many things in there that didn’t make sense. I think that was somewhat brought to light.”

A risk for a valuable reward

The new CBA also features a step forward from the previous one, which limited players to only having certain benefits while under contract. That was a blind spot of the previous CBA, which featured progress of its own by making sure pregnant players still received their full base salaries while on maternity leave.

When Hamby was asked about how far the league has come and what makes her most proud, she became emotional.

“When I was starting this process, I was throwing up because of the anxiety,” said Hamby, the memory of it bringing her to tears. “It’s not that this could make or break (me). But when you’re doing something like that, it could go bad.”

That was the case for the NFL’s Colin Kaepernick, an activist she thought of while advocating for her own cause.

Although she said she was prepared to “go out doing the right thing,” she didn’t have to.

She’s thriving in Los Angeles, where she hasn’t missed a game the past three seasons. She was named an All-Star for the third time in 2024, and averaged a career-high 18.4 points per game last season.

From losing a community to creating one

Hamby, 32, still lives in Las Vegas and recently started the Dear Marie Foundation, which aims to help support moms in pregnancy, postpartum and their return to work.

She’s partnering with Shade Tree as part of those efforts, a domestic violence shelter that reminds her of her own upbringing.

Hamby’s mother, Carla Hamby, was a single mom at 17. She wasn’t afraid to utilize available resources to support her daughter, who now helps provide that assistance to other moms.

As Hamby stood in front of the bulletin board of activities at Shade Tree, memories of her own childhood came flooding back.

“I grew up in a women’s shelter with my mom … it’s full circle,” Hamby said.

It’s not lost on Hamby that her experience of being traded pushed her into the position she’s in now.

“I lost my community at the snap of a finger. People I considered my best friends, just gone. Like that,” Hamby said.

During that time, she had to see negative comments of people demeaning her and calling her integrity into question.

“I had to see those things and read those things,” Hamby said. “I had to really break myself down to build myself back up.”

In hindsight, Hamby said she realizes she had to be forced out of the environment she loved to grow.

“All of that really just drove me into my purpose,” she said. “I’ve always known my purpose was to be a mom. And then this happened, and I realized my purpose is to help other moms.”

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Callie__Fin on X.