(ThyBlackMan.com) There is no greater moment than the arrival of a life into the world. It is deservedly a major deal when a healthy childbirth occurs and in sports it is highlighted that male professional athletes do not have to deal with the physical, emotional, and even financial challenges that female professional athletes do who are pregnant. There are major challenges for working expecting mothers of being off work without pay, having to take weeks off to heal, caring for a new baby, establishing a routine, and feeling emotionally or physically ready to be back to their work environments. There could also be potential complications from birth, postpartum depression, and limited daycare options.
Beyond sports, it is worth mentioning that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not require companies to issue paid family leave. The Women’s National Basketball Association, the WNBA, is arguably the most high-profile women’s professional sports league in the U.S. and has had some WNBA All-Stars have unpleasing experiences with WNBA teams over the years regarding their pregnancies.
Skylar Diggins-Smith is one of the most recognizable athletes in women’s basketball over the past 15 years. The former number one overall draft pick of the 2013 WNBA Draft has been pregnant twice during her WNBA career. In 2019, Diggins-Smith opted to sit out the entire season after giving birth to her first child in April of that year and publicly expressed her displeasure with the Dallas Wings organization for their lack of support during her absence. Her tenure with the team was never the same despite Diggins-Smith being a multiple-time WNBA All-Star prior to her pregnancy. She was acquired by the Phoenix Mercury, where she currently plays.
The pregnancy story was a bit different for Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier in 2022. Collier, was also a cornerstone player for the Lynx, when she was on maternity leave for most of the 2022 WNBA season due to the birth of her daughter in May 2022. She returned to the Lynx in August 2022, just a few months after delivering her daughter, and played four games. When Napheesa Collier first found out that she was pregnant, she thought she would miss the entire 2022 WNBA season but when she found out that longtime Minnesota Lynx great and teammate Sylvia Fowles would retire following the 2022 season, Collier wanted to play alongside her one last season. Due to Fowles’s impending retirement, the Lynx competing to make the WNBA playoffs, and the injury to teammate Aerial Powers, the Lynx team both supported and provided some push for the return to the basketball court for Collier less than 90 days after giving birth. It could be argued that the Minnesota Lynx organization should have protected Collier’s health and well-being by not allowing her to play professional basketball less than 90 days after becoming a first-time mom.
This year, Dearica Hamby was a WNBA All-Star and has been a productive player throughout her career. However, she isn’t pleased with how her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, treated as she has filed a federal lawsuit against the Las Vegas Aces this year, alleging intimidation, discrimination and harassment by the Aces over her pregnancy, which she announced after winning the WNBA title with the Aces in September 2022. Las Vegas traded Hamby to the Los Angeles Sparks in January 2023 and the Aces organization and head coach Becky Hammon have strongly denied any wrongdoing to Hamby.
Hamby did file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September of 2023 and the WNBA launched its own investigation into the situation. The WNBA gave Hammon a two-game suspension for what it deemed “a violation of league and team ‘respect in the workplace’ policies.” It remains to be seen what impact Dearica Hamby’s lawsuit will have on the WNBA’s maternity leave policies, which could be viewed as superior to those of the average U.S. workplace.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines
