After the Sparks traded for the two-time All-Star — whose second child is due in March — she alleged her former team treated her unprofessionally and unethically. Here’s hoping L.…
, played in the then-Stars’ first preseason tilt on April 29 and then didn’t miss a game all season. And she plans to play this season, she’s said several times, writing Saturday that she’s been training with that purpose.
. “A lot of that comes with maturity as well, but just the toughness that I play with, the hunger and the drive, the heart that I play with, I think it comes with giving birth.”signed an extension in June for a reported $169,000 in both 2023 and 2024, which is slightly less than the maximum the Aces could’ve paid her and likely less than what she could have earned as a free agent. About that, she wrote: “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 there was a concern for my level of commitment to the team. I was told that ‘I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain’ … because ‘no one expected me to get pregnant in the next two years.’ “I was asked if I planned my pregnancy. When I responded, ‘no,’ I was then told that I ‘was not taking precautions to not get pregnant…’ ”So there’s this thing called the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. It prohibits – or is supposed to – discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. What does pregnancy discrimination involve? Treating an individual unfavorably in any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments … I suppose you could argue that being traded isn’t a demotion. She’ll be paid in accordance with the contract she signed. But the way Hamby heard it communicated to her, the move was a punitive response to her pregnancy. She indicates she was made to feel that, because she was pregnant, she wasn’t taking her workouts – her work – seriously. And if a WNBA team – whose entire product is built on the talent and contributions of women – can’t figure out how to fairly treat its child-bearing employees, what hope is there for the rest of the workforce? Athletes’ careers are short, and in those years, their jobs often are exceptionally physically demanding. So pregnant players are, in a sense, navigating an extreme version of the complicated calculus so many moms make. But whether we’re trying to, say, break into a TV writers’ room or to earn a communitie’s buy-in as the principal at an elementary school, having a baby can serve as a setback, career-wise. Because every organization or company has its own version of a salary cap, and competition in the job market is hardly exclusive to sports. Before 2020 in the WNBA, players earned only half their salary when they were out while pregnant, getting fully compensated only after the new collective bargaining agreement was enacted. Only this season will the league allow teams to replace a player on maternity leave with an applicable minimum salary without it counting against the salary cap or them having to apply for a hardship roster spot – even though the pregnant player’s salary will continue to count. And still, the stigma persists surrounding pregnancy. You know, that whole business of growing a human. Populating the planet. Literally, life!following Hamby’s post, saying it had “serious concerns” and asking for a comprehensive investigation to ensure that players’ rights under the league’s collective bargaining agreement, as well those under state and federal law, aren’t violated.
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