A sex toy was thrown onto the court during an WNBA game between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Indiana Fever on Tuesday, the third such incident which has impacted the league over the past week.<\/p>\n
In the second quarter at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, a green toy was thrown in the direction of Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old had previously asked people to stop throwing such objects earlier this week on social media but appeared to be struck on the leg by the toy during Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cthis did NOT age well,\u201d she wrote on X after the game, replying to her own previous post calling for spectators to stop throwing sex toys on the court.<\/p>\n
She also posted a message on her Instagram Stories, saying: \u201cNo way that thing actually hit me. I knew I shouldn\u2019t have tweeted that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s game was only halted very briefly following the incident.<\/p>\n
After Sparks guard Kelsey Plum kicked the toy off the court, fans around the arena could be heard booing and seen pointing towards who they thought had thrown the object.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if the perpetrator was ever identified or if any disciplinary action has been taken.<\/p>\n
CNN Sports has also reached out to the WNBA, the Los Angeles Sparks, and the Indiana Fever for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s ridiculous, it\u2019s dumb, it\u2019s stupid,\u201d Sparks coach Lynne Roberts told reporters after her team\u2019s 100-91 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also dangerous and players\u2019 safety is No. 1. Respecting the game. All those things. I think it\u2019s really stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copycat behaviour<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s incident comes after two similar occurrences in the league over the past seven days.<\/p>\n
On Friday, a sex toy was thrown from the stands at Wintrust Arena in Chicago during the Golden State Valkyries\u2019 73-66 win over the Chicago Sky. The toy landed just out of bounds underneath one of the baskets.<\/p>\n
That followed a similar incident three days prior during Valkyries\u2019 77-75 victory over the Atlanta Dream at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia.<\/p>\n
The individual involved in the incident in Atlanta was identified and arrested, according to the WNBA.<\/p>\n
They are reportedly charged with disorderly conduct, public indecency\/indecent exposure, and criminal trespass, according to Reuters, with a court date yet to be established.<\/p>\n
According to social media posts seen by the Associated Press, green toys were also thrown in Phoenix and New York, but didn\u2019t reach the court.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the WNBA said any fan caught engaging in such behavior will face prosecution as well as a ban from the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety and well-being of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league,\u201d a WNBA spokesperson told CNN Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cObjects of any kind thrown onto the court or in the seating area can pose a safety risk for players, game officials, and fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn line with WNBA Arena Security Standards, any fan who intentionally throws an object onto the court will be immediately ejected and face a minimum one-year ban in addition to being subject to arrest and prosecution by local authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sex toy was thrown onto the court during an WNBA game between the Los Angeles Sparks and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[712,49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-49705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}