Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon denies bullying former player after WNBA sanctions

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon denied Wednesday that former Aces player Dearica Hamby was bullied on her team for being pregnant, saying any ill feelings between the two came from Hamby being traded.

Hammon, one of the league’s marquee figures, said at a news conference she did nothing to warrant discipline from the WNBA, which suspended her for two games without pay Tuesday after a monthslong investigation into Hamby’s allegations.

“I’ll take my little lump on the chin and keep it moving,” Hammon said. “We’re bigger than this. It’s just not who the Aces are. It’s not who I am. And so, yeah, everybody’s disappointed in the situation, but at the end of the day, we know who we are and so we go to sleep every night in that truth.”

Hammon said she once asked Hamby about her pregnancy, but didn’t get into the specifics of what she said.

“I guess you’d have to ask for (the league’s) interpretation,” Hammon said. “But, yeah, that from my understanding was my misstep, if you will.”

Hammon, who in her first season last year led the Aces to the WNBA championship, spent eight seasons as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs and is considered one of the rising stars in the basketball coaching world. She has been linked to the vacant Toronto Raptors job.

The WNBA also rescinded the Aces’ first-round pick in the 2025 draft on Tuesday for a different issue — a violation of league rules regarding impermissible player benefits involving Hamby, who was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks on Jan. 21.

The trade allowed the Aces to clear up salary-cap space to sign former two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker.

“We made the decision to move Hamby because we could get three bodies in for her one contract,” Hammon said. “I