The WNBA suspended Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon for two games on Tuesday for comments she made to All-Star forward Diarika Hamby about her pregnancy, but the players’ union said the punishment did not go far enough.

The Aces traded Hamby to the Los Angeles Sparks in January, just months after the Aces won the championship and Hamby signed a contract extension. while Hamby wrote on his Instagram. that an unnamed person made “disgusting comments”. She said she was falsely accused of signing a contract extension when she knew she was pregnant and was told she was being sold because “I won’t be ready and we need bodies.”

She said her commitment to the team was also questioned, although she forced herself to work out during her pregnancy when it was “uncomfortable to walk”. Hamby won the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year award in 2019 and 2020 and was named to the All-Star Team for the second time last season.

“The unprofessional and unethical treatment I received was traumatic,” Hamby wrote in January, adding that it is particularly disappointing that her mistreatment came from women who are mothers who preach “family, chemistry and female empowerment.”

29-year-old Hamby announced the birth of her son. Legend, in March. She also has a 6-year-old daughter, Amaya.

The WNBA did not elaborate on what Hammon said to Hamby, but said that Hammon’s comments violated its workplace respect policy. The league also said the Aces would lose a first-round pick in the 2025 draft for promising unspecified unacceptable advantages to Hamby during contract negotiations.

On Tuesday, the WNBA Players’ Union said the fines were “far from inappropriate.”

“Where in this decision does this team, or any other team in the league, learn that respect in the workplace is the highest standard, and player dignity cannot be manipulated?” the union said.

In May 2021, then-Connecticut Sun coach Kurt Miller was fined $10,000 and suspended for one game for making a shameful comment about center Liz Cambage’s weight. Miller now coaches the Sparks.

Hammon’s two-game suspension is not paid, but the league did not announce the penalty.

The union called for an investigation following Hamby’s Instagram post on January 21. On February 8, the Aces said in a statement that the league had launched an official investigation and that the team would cooperate.

Hammon, 46, played 16 seasons in the WNBA and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, during her first season with the Aces. She spent eight seasons as an assistant coach with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs and became the first woman in NBA history to serve as a full-time assistant coach. There were rumors that she was considering a job as a head coach in the men’s league. Aces owner Mark Davis announced her hiring as an inspirational moment for the girls because the team would pay her over $1 million, more than any other coach in the league.

In recent years, players, fans, and league officials have been pushing for more investment in the WNBA. The league’s most recent collective bargaining agreement, signed in 2020, included a wave of new or increased maternity-related benefits, including full pay during maternity leave, more spacious housing, a $5,000 child care allowance, and maternity benefits. adoption and infertility treatment.

The fight for professional athletes who are also parents is still in its infancy.

In May 2022, Sarah Björk Gunnarsdottir, an Icelandic footballer, sued her former Lyon team over the treatment he had received during her pregnancy. The team did not pay her during her pregnancy and did not fulfill their “duties of care” while she was away from the club.

“No one really checked me, monitored, saw how I feel mentally and physically, both as an employee and as a person.” Gunnarsdottir wrote in an article for The Players’ Tribune.. “Basically, they had a duty to take care of me, and they didn’t.”

Lyon was forced to pay her everything she owed.

Maternity leave has only been added to the collective bargaining agreements of the WNBA and the National Women’s Football League in the past few years. V NWSL Agreement, signed in 2022, marked the introduction of eight weeks of paid maternity or adoption leave. Previously, there were no guidelines for young parents.

Star power also doesn’t protect individual athletes. Allison Felix, an 11-time Olympian in track and field, and Serena Williams, who has won 23 Grand Slam tennis singles, also had to fight for income protection after having children.

When Felix asked Nike not to take a pay cut if she didn’t perform at her best in the months leading up to the birth, the company refused, she reported in May 2019. Three months later, Nike announced a new maternity policy for all sponsored athletes.

When Williams returned to the pro tour in early 2018, eight months after giving birth, her world ranking dropped to No. 1.451 from no. 1 despite her record. She fought to ensure that players had a protected rating, and during the year the Women’s Tennis Association rules for players returning from pregnancy have changedwhich allows them to use the special rating for three years after the birth of the child.