Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby spoke emotionally last month about her return to her former team, the Las Vegas Aces, when she spoke to Sarah Spain on Good Game this week.

The Aug. 18 game came just days after Hamby filed a lawsuit against the WNBA and the Aces, alleging the team discriminated against her while she was pregnant with her second child in 2022. The Aces traded her to the Sparks in January 2023, and she gave birth on March 6 of that year. The full 18-page lawsuit can be read here.

When Hamby returned to Las Vegas last month, the Aces crowd apparently booed her almost every time she got the ball, creating a tense atmosphere at Michelob Ultra Arena.

“I fought back tears the whole game,” Hamby told Spain. “It was heartbreaking, but people don’t know or understand it completely, they just go by the sporting aspect of it. I understand that.”

Hamby has done a lot for the Aces during her five seasons with the organization, including helping win the franchise’s first WNBA title in 2022. She also won the Sixth Woman of the Year award in 2019 and ’20.

“I don’t know if it was new fans, I think a lot of the old fans probably weren’t in it,” Hamby said. “But the love and the heart that I put into being a part of that, and I didn’t ask to leave, so to speak.”

The Aces defeated Hamby’s Sparks that night 87-71.