Exclusive: Hamby talks CBA, bringing Sparks basketball ‘back’, more

The veteran forward is in her third year in Los Angeles.

(Photo credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images)

LOS ANGELES -- LA Sparks forward Dearica Hamby is in her 12th season in the WNBA, a career that’s spanned 339 games across three cities, starting in San Antonio as the No. 6 overall selection for the now-defunct Stars and taking a winding road through Las Vegas and, presently, Los Angeles.

Hamby, 31, is currently averaging 16.5 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.9 steals for the Sparks, shooting 52.2 percent from the field in the process.

But there’s more than meets the eye with Hamby, even if she is presently enjoying the second-best statistical season of her professional career. The Wake Forest product is currently embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, over, among other things, pregnancy discrimination that ultimately led to her being traded to the Sparks in January 2023.

“I think, regardless of the outcome of that [case], I think that my situation definitely opened eyes to the circumstances within our CBA,” Hamby told Russo Writes in a wide-ranging exclusive interview. “I don’t even know if people know this, but pregnancy discrimination is not even a class, or pregnancy is not a class in our CBA.”

The WNBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has been a topic of conversation in recent weeks and months, as the WNBPA and league look to find common ground on a new deal as the present one expires after this current league season.

“So, just little things like that, that I’m gonna consider a win that they’re gonna prioritize in the next CBA, regardless of however the outcome of my case is,” Hamby said. “It sucks to have gone through that, but I definitely think it’s not just a WNBA-changing thing but a women’s-changing thing. Like I said, it sucks, but I’m glad that it happened.”