The WNBA continues to deal with a troubling trend: during live games, sex toys are being thrown onto the basketball court.
The latest incident happened when a sex toy was thrown onto the court in the last seconds of the Atlanta Dream and Chicago Sky game on Thursday night, marking the fourth time this has happened at a WNBA game in recent weeks.
Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve spoke to reporters about the disturbing trend.
“This has been going on for centuries. The sexualization of women. This is the latest version of that and it’s not funny,” Reeve said. “It should not be the butt of jokes on any radio shows, or in print or any comments. The sexualization of women is what’s used to hold women down and this is no different.”
Reeve said the people who are throwing the sex toys on the court should “be held accountable.”
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“We’re not the butt of the joke. They’re the problem and we need to take action,” she said.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve pulled reporters aside after today’s availability to make this comment about the recent trend of s*x toys are being thrown on WNBA courts: pic.twitter.com/oA0nHwluaf
— Shelby Swanson (@shelbymswanson) August 7, 2025
Arrests have been made
Sex toys were also thrown on the court during games in Atlanta on July 29, Chicago on Aug. 1 and Los Angeles on Tuesday. The sex toy that landed on the court in Los Angeles nearly hit Fever guard Sophie Cunningham during Indiana’s game against the Sparks.
Sex toys were also thrown at games in New York and Phoenix last Tuesday but didn’t reach the court. Police say another toy was thrown at a game in Atlanta on Aug. 1, although it’s unclear if that one reached the court.
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A man was arrested Saturday in College Park, Ga., after he was accused of throwing a green sex toy onto the court during the Atlanta Dream’s July 29 game with the Golden State Valkyries, according to a police report.
Carver Delbert, 23, was charged with disorderly conduct, public indecency and criminal trespass.
A security officer saw Delbert recording himself while throwing the sex toy in the middle of the floor one minute before the game was over. He tried to run but was arrested.
“This was supposed to be a joke and this joke supposed to go viral,” he told officers, according to arrest documents. Records show he was booked into Clayton County Jail at 7:42 p.m. and released late Sunday on an undisclosed bond, according to ESPN.
Another man in Phoenix was arrested after police said he threw a sex toy in the crowd at a Mercury game on Tuesday. Kaden Lopez, 18, pulled the sex toy from his sweater pocket and threw it toward the seats in front of him, striking a man in the back.
Police said the man was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and publicly displaying explicit sexual material.
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The incident was caught on video and a witness tackled Lopez and held him on the ground until police arrived, according to court documents.
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The man hit with the toy said he was watching the game with his nine-year-old niece when he felt something hit him in the back of the head and saw it land on the ground next to them. Police said Lopez told them he was “very sorry” and said he was participating in the vulgar trend.
“It was just a stupid prank that was trending on social media,” Lopez said, according to court documents.
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The man hit by the object, the WNBA and the PHX Arena, where the incident took place, wanted to press charges.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said a Superior Court commissioner found no probable cause for the felony charge of public display of explicit sexual material but is recommending that the other misdemeanour charges be submitted to the city prosecutor.
Lopez was released on conditions that barred him from returning to the arena and from having contact with the victims. He has a preliminary hearing set for Aug. 25.
How is it affecting players?
After the trend began, the WNBA said any spectators throwing objects onto the court will face at least a one-year ban and prosecution from law enforcement.
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“The safety and well-being of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league. Objects of any kind thrown onto the court or in the seating area can pose a safety risk for players, game officials, and fans,” a WNBA spokesperson said Thursday.
WNBA players across the league have shared their reactions to the trend on social media and during press conferences.
“ARENA SECURITY?! Hello??! Please do better,” New York Liberty forward Isabelle Harrison wrote on X. “It’s not funny. never was funny. Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous.”
ARENA SECURITY?! Hello??! Please do better. It’s not funny. never was funny. Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous.
— Isabelle Harrison (@OMG_itsizzyb) August 2, 2025
“It’s super disrespectful,” Chicago Sky centre Elizabeth Williams said during a press conference. “I don’t really get the point of it. It’s really immature. Whoever is doing it needs to grow up.”
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“I mean, first of all, it was super dangerous,” Golden State Valkyries forward Cecilia Zandalasini said during a postgame press conference. “And then when we found out what it was, I guess we just started laughing. I’ve never seen anything like that. I’m just glad we worked through that situation. We stayed locked in, we stayed concentrated.”
“I think it’s ridiculous. It’s dumb. It’s stupid,” Los Angeles Sparks coach Lynne Roberts told reporters. “It’s also dangerous, and players’ safety is No. 1. Respecting the game. All those things. I think it’s really stupid. That’s all I’m going to say.”
How can arenas help stop the trend?
The types of sex toys being thrown onto the court generally do not include metal elements, meaning that arena metal detectors are not able to sense them. When carried on a spectator’s body, they become even more difficult to detect.
Arena security teams face challenges in catching these items, according to Ty Richmond, the president of the event services division at Allied Universal Security, which provides security services to certain NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB and MLS arenas across the country.
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“Not all stadiums are using a screening process that’s consistent and can detect [the sex toys] because of what it would require — pat down searches, opening the bags, prohibiting bags,” he told The Associated Press. “The conflict of expediency, of getting fans into the arena and into the venue, which is an important issue, and security and safety.”
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The limits of arena security make legal action one of the strongest deterrents for this kind of behaviour, Richmond said.
“The decision to prosecute and show examples of how people are being handled is very important,” he said. “Without a doubt, I think it will make a difference. The application of it is important, and publicizing that is important.”
What is the trend linked to?
One potential theory behind the trend’s origin is linked to the marketing of a crypto coin, which started trading July 28, the day before the first sex toy was thrown at a WNBA game, according to the New York Times.
A person who uses the name @Daldo_Raine on social media spoke to USA Today Sports on condition of anonymity, and said a group of crypto enthusiasts and traders launched a crypto meme coin, titled Green Dildo Coin, as a joke in late July.
According to the person, the meme coin was created as a form of protest amid an influx of influencers and scammers.
The crypto group’s spokesperson claimed it’s “not their intention to harm anyone, and members of the community have been advised to only throw their branded green items if there is a level of personal comfort and the objects can land without hitting someone.”
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“We didn’t do this because like we dislike women’s sports or, like, some of the narratives that are trending right now are ridiculous,” he said. “Creating disruption at games is like, it happens in every single sport, right? We’ve seen it in the NFL, we’ve seen it in hockey, you know . . . fans doing random things to more or less create attention.
“We knew that in order to get a voice in the space … we had to go out and do some viral stunts to save us from having to pay that influencer cabal, sacrifice our souls and the fate of the project.”
The green sex toy is reportedly supposed to mirror a green candle and if the price of the candle goes up, “it represents volatility.”
He added that the bright colour of the object was intentional to be disruptive and create curiosity.
The person noted that the two people arrested for throwing the sex toys were not part of their group.
“Moving forward, we have a lot more pranks, but they’re a lot lighter. They’re a lot more tasteful,” the spokesperson said. “They’re with a lot of different branded merch, and it’s more or less to keep the [sex toy] being spotted in different places that are high-traffic areas with cameras.”
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A meme coin is a type of crypto inspired by internet memes or trends “for which the promoter seeks to attract an enthusiastic online community to purchase the meme coin and engage in its trading,” according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to cryptocurrency website coingecko.com, the group’s meme coin has increased in value by nearly 309 per cent in the last seven days and more than 80 per cent in the last 24 hours. It currently has a 24-hour trading volume of more than $1.1 million.
On Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. shared a meme that showed his father, U.S. President Donald Trump, throwing a sex toy off the roof of the White House onto a basketball court with women players.
“Posted without further comment,” he captioned the post, adding three crying laughing emojis.
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— With files from The Associated Press