Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby says she received a racist text message calling her a racial slur and comparing her to an animal, and the man believed responsible is no longer employed at the medical equipment company where he worked.
Hamby posted a screenshot of the message on X on the morning of August 24, showing the text along with the sender’s phone number, which carries a 561 area code covering West Palm Beach and the surrounding part of South Florida. She asked her roughly 47,000 followers whether anyone recognized the number.
How the sender was identified
Within hours, users on X ran the phone number through public reverse-lookup tools and began circulating a name and employer tied to the number. The trail led to Acclaro Medical, a Rhode Island-based supplier of medical equipment, which confirmed it had opened an internal investigation.
The company initially suspended the employee pending that investigation. On Tuesday, September 1, Acclaro Medical confirmed the employee is no longer with the company.
Acclaro Medical’s statement
In a statement, Acclaro Medical said it “condemns racism, harassment, hate speech and discriminating behavior in all forms” and that the remarks “do not in any way reflect the values and standards of the Company.”
The company has not released the former employee’s name, and BeezLoop News has not independently confirmed his identity through primary sources.
The incident’s timing
The text arrived two days after Hamby was ejected from a Sparks game against the Connecticut Sun on August 22 for an elbow to the face of Sun forward Raegan Beers during a fourth-quarter scramble. Hamby has not tied the message directly to that ejection in her public comments, and the sender’s motive beyond the message itself has not been reported.
Hamby, a two-time WNBA All-Star, has played for the Sparks since 2023 after previous stints with the Las Vegas Aces and San Antonio Stars. She has not issued an additional public statement beyond the original post sharing the screenshot.
A pattern of online abuse in the WNBA
The incident is the latest in a string of racist and threatening messages directed at WNBA players that the league and players’ union have flagged over the past several seasons, as the league’s rising visibility has come with an increase in targeted harassment on social media. Players and the WNBPA have repeatedly called for platforms and law enforcement to do more to identify and hold accountable the people sending the messages.
For now, Hamby’s decision to post the screenshot publicly, sender’s number included, produced a fast result: a company distancing itself from the message and cutting ties with the employee tied to it within about a week.
Sources
Yahoo Sports: Employee fired after LA Sparks’ Dearica Hamby shares racist text
Larry Brown Sports: Man fired over racist message to WNBA star Dearica Hamby
Yardbarker: Medical device company fires employee over exchange involving Dearica Hamby
