Get to know Dearica Hamby as she heads to Paris 2024
Dearica Hamby is the most decorated women’s basketball player in Wake Forest University history. She’s had an impressive nine-year WNBA career thus far, earning multiple Sixth Woman of the Year awards, being named to three All-Star teams and winning a 2022 WNBA championship.
Now playing for the Los Angeles Sparks, the 30-year-old is having the best season of her career and is looking to carry this momentum into her Olympic debut at Paris 2024.
Following the unfortunate ACL injury to her Sparks’ teammate, rookie Cameron Brink, a vacancy opened on Team USA’s women’s 3x3 basketball team and Hamby has been selected to fill the void in hopes of helping the United States win a second-consecutive gold medal.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Dearica Hamby, Crypto.com Arena on 7 June, 2024
Dearica Hamby’s path to the pros
Hamby grew up in Marietta, Georgia and for a majority of her youth, she was an aspiring softball player. As a 5-foot-7 freshman in high school, basketball never crossed her mind until she hit a major growth spurt and shot up to 6-foot-3.
“Then I hit a growth spurt,” Hamby said in a 2015 interview with WNBA.com. “I grew about five inches. I heard, ‘You should play basketball! You’re tall!’ The coach asked me to try out, but it was bad. They just wanted me on the team because I was tall.”
She eventually found her niche on the court, being named a first-team All-Metro selection by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club as a junior attending Marietta High School. As a senior, she attended Norcross High School and helped lead the team to a 5-A state title in 2010-11 averaging 10 points and eight rebounds a game.
Hamby was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, receiving offers from several upper echelon collegiate programs. She eventually settled on Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where she had a dominant four-year career.
She finished her time at Wake Forest as the program’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, with 1,801 points and 1,021 rebounds. Hamby was also named All-ACC twice as a Demon Deacon. As a senior, she averaged an impressive 20.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game which led her to being selected with the sixth overall pick in the 2015 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Stars, which later became the Las Vegas Aces.
She was the first women’s basketball player from Wake Forest to ever be drafted to the WNBA.
Dearica Hamby’s WNBA Career
Hamby immediately started 16 games as a rookie under head coach Dan Hughes, averaging 6.1 points and 4.1 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game. Her role fluctuated over the next three seasons, improving her shooting efficiency as she moved to the bench.
In 2019, a year after the franchise moved to Las Vegas, Hamby had a career year averaging 11 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and was named WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year (6WOY) for her efforts. She defended the award the following season, averaging 13 points and 7.1 rebounds and taking home her second consecutive 6WOY trophy.
Hamby made her first All-Star team during the 2021 season, where she came off the bench in every game she played and averaged 11.6 points and 6.7 rebounds a game. The next season, she returned to the starting lineup but maintained her All-Star form for a second-straight season. Hamby averaged 9.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game as the Aces won the franchise's first championship.
She was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks prior to the 2023 season, ending an eight-year stint in Las Vegas. After a down year by her standards, Hamby is having the best season of her career in 2024. The forward is averaging 18.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game, and was recently named to her third All-Star team.
“Being selected to the All-Star team is a tremendous honor and I’m excited to head to Phoenix to compete,” said Hamby in a press release. “This points to the hard work that I’ve put in during the offseason and in games so far, but it’s also thanks to my great teammates and coaches who have trusted me in a leadership role with our team.”
Dearica Hamby, 2021 WNBA All-Star Game
Dearica Hamby’s international path to Paris 2024
Hamby is no stranger to international basketball, having both 3x3 and 5-on-5 experiences under her belt.
She began playing 5-on-5 with Team USA in 2022, participating in the women’s national team training camps, FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifying and the USA Basketball Women’s College Tour in 2023. Also in 2023, Hamby was a member of Team USA’s roster for the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup, not only winning gold but also tournament MVP honors.
Hamby was not initially named to Team USA’s women’s 3x3 basketball team for Paris 2024. However, following her Sparks’ teammate Cameron Brink suffering a heartbreaking knee injury, the 30-year-old got the call up as her replacement on 24 June.
“My heart breaks for her. When she got the news she made it and I got the news I didn’t originally, we cried together,” Hamby told The Associated Press in an interview. “It’s kind of an ironic situation. I’m sure if she wanted to have anybody replace her, she’d want it to be me.”
Hamby now joins TCU's Hailey Van Lith, former Tennessee/WNBA player Cierra Burdick and the Atlanta Dream's Rhyne Howard on Team USA. The United States’ women’s team won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020 which was the first time the 3x3 competition was held. This group will look to carry the torch forward and Hamby will play an important role.
Women’s 3x3 basketball will begin on 30 July and run through 5 August.