Dearica Hamby's lawsuit against WNBA can kickstart changes the league desperately needs
On Monday, Aug. 12, Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks filed a lawsuit against the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA and the league itself.
In short, Hamby alleges that she was discriminated against by the Aces when they discovered she was pregnant with her second child, ultimately forcing a trade that sent Hamby to the Sparks. She also believes that the WNBA failed to properly punish the Aces for their behavior.....
Hamby’s focus on the deterrence of similar behavior in the future suggests that she feels the same way Felix did. No one wants to go up against the leader in sports apparel sales, not really. Nor do they want to face off against a league in the midst of a storied ascent, or one of the league’s premiere teams.
But someone has to do the hard thing. If progress is ever to be made, someone has to roll up their sleeves and dig their hands in the dirt of injustice and inequality and try to bring forth something that resembles hope and change and fairness. It’s the kind of effort that belies personal success, which is why it so often remains undone. It’s a selfless kind of work, one that takes and takes long before it ever gives.
"I’ve had several moments since, where I’ll be in a race and afterward a person that I’m competing against comes up to me and says thank you and details a story or something,” Felix said in her 2022 interview with The Times. “And that just blows my mind because I’m like, wow, I never thought that things would change quickly. I just never thought I would have those moments, even though I was hoping that it would be for the women coming up, I didn’t think that they would be saying anything to me about it.”
https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/columnists/2024/08/15/wnba-lawsuit-dearica-hamby-maternity-protections/74787898007/