New details on Las Vegas Aces investigation contradict Becky Hammon’s comments

Asked Wednesday if she felt her actions had fallen short of those standards, Hammon was adamant that they hadn’t.

“No, I don’t, I don’t think they fell short,” Hammon said Wednesday. “That’s not how I recall the conversation [with Hamby] going. And there wasn’t one player complaint in the last six, previous six months. [Aces president] Nikki Fargas can attest to that not one person or office complaining, there’s not one point or statement that was reported to Nikki of anything, but quite honestly compliments and how they liked me being their coach. So that’s who I am.”

But new information confirmed by the WNBA calls into question a number of Hammon’s assertions from the press conference, while other questions still loom. New details on the scope of the investigation also establish the level of seriousness with which the inquiry was handled.

A source familiar with the investigation (confirmed by the WNBA) tells The Next that while Hammon repeatedly asserted that no current Aces players were interviewed during the investigation among the 33 people spoken to, that came from a direct choice made by the team itself. The league offered the Aces the opportunity to add anyone they felt would be relevant to the inquiry to the investigation, and the Aces declined to include any of their current players, or indeed, anyone at all who wasn’t already on a list formulated by the league and the WNBPA.

That list, provided to a pair of investigators — one from the U.S. Attorney’s Office from the Southern District of New York, the other from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office — ultimately made up the group of 33 individuals, a collection the source described as “everyone who they thought would have relevant information”. That collection of people — those involved in the conversations between Hamby and Aces officials, including Hammon, along with a list provided by the WNBPA — did not include any current Aces players by the choice of the team, according to a source familiar.

Hammon also said during her press conference that Liz Cambage — a former Las Vegas player — was among the 33 players interviewed, but a league source denied this.

The Aces did not immediately have comment on either Cambage’s inclusion in the investigation or the allegation that they declined to add anyone to the list of people the investigators would talk to, including their current players.

“As expected, the facts did not demonstrate that the Aces violated the salary cap by paying players ‘under the table’ or acted impermissibly during the 2023 free agency period,” the Aces said in their statement Tuesday evening.

But the league concluded otherwise. And it appears that, given the chance to cooperate fully in showing that, the Aces declined to do so.