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\n\tOver the past five years, the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has gone from a struggling and underpaid league to a dominating force in U.S. sports. The journey wasn\u2019t easy, with coaches and players facing discrimination, struggling ticket sales, and a battle for equal pay they\u2019re still fighting. But the WNBA\u2019s most recent issue is a baffling one that started as an immature joke and has quickly morphed into a safety hazard: lime-green dildos being thrown onto the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe first time a fluorescent sex-toy was tossed onto the court during a game between the Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries, most people\u00a0\u2014 players included \u2014\u00a0had a laugh. There was less than a minute left on the clock, and the game was only paused for a few seconds, long enough for a security guard to cover the dildo with a towel and remove it, to giggles from the surrounding crowd. \u201cIt was super dangerous, [but] when we found out what it was, I guess we just started laughing,\u201d Valkyries forward Cecilia Zandalasini said in a post-game interview, covering her smile while fellow teammate Tiffany Hayes tried to hold in laughter next to her.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like that. I\u2019m just glad we worked through that situation. We stayed locked in, we stayed concentrated.\u201d The jokes flew on social media after the incident. \u201cDamn how my shit get there,\u201d Las Vegas Aces player Kierstan Bell joked when the green offender quickly went viral on social media. Players like Bell, Indiana Fever point guard Sydney Colson, and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese all made quips on social media about the sex toy\u2019s appearance on the jumbotron.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBut the joke has since gotten stale, as four more dildos were thrown by unnamed spectators toward WNBA courts. (One did not make it to interrupt gameplay but hit people in the crowd instead.) Since going viral, jokes about the green dildos have flooded sites like X and TikTok. Sports gambling site Polymarket is even accepting bets on what games the next dildo will appear \u2014\u00a0and what color it could be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tWhile it\u2019s unclear who threw the first sex toy \u2014\u00a0or why they did it \u2014 the repeated appearance of other green phalluses on courts has WNBA officials concerned that the the prank is becoming a viral trend,\u00a0inspiring others to repeat the joke at future games. In addition to being NSFW, sex toys hitting the court during active play could put players at risk for everything from distractions and minor sprains to career-ending injuries.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe safety and wellbeing of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league,\u201d a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cObjects of any kind thrown onto the court or in the seating area can pose a safety risk for players, game officials, and fans.\u201d Anyone who is caught attempting to throw anything onto the court can receive at minimum a one-year ban from WNBA games in addition to arrest and potential prosecution by police. On Aug. 2, police in Georgia arrested 23-year-old Delbert Carver, ESPN reported, for allegedly throwing a dildo onto the court during the Valkyries Dream matchup. Carver faces counts of indecent exposure, trespassing, and disorderly conduct, according to ESPN. He does not yet have a court date. On Aug. 5, Fox10 Phoenix reported that Kaden Lopez, 18, was arrested at a Phoenix Mercury game in Arizona after allegedly trying to throw a green dildo on the court and hitting a man and his niece instead. According to local news, he told police it was a \u201cstupid prank that was trending on social media.\u201d Lopez faces charges for assault, public indecency, and disorderly conduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSince the dildo-throwing has ratcheted up, league insiders have shifted from being somewhat amused to downright concerned, with players and coaches calling the trend dangerous and a hazard for players. \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous, it\u2019s dumb, it\u2019s stupid,\u201d Los Angeles Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said in a post-game interview. \u201cIt\u2019s also dangerous. Player safety is number one, respecting the game, all those things. I think it\u2019s really stupid.\u201d Sky player Elizabeth Williams called the joke \u201cdisrespectful and immature. I don\u2019t really get the point of it,\u201d Williams said in an interview. \u201cWhoever\u2019s doing it just needs to grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tIn an op-ed, Athletic writer Shannon Ryan called the pranks an attempt to sexually demean WNBA players at the same time people are finally starting to acknowledge their athletic prowess\u00a0\u2014 especially considering the league is known for its \u201copenly gay and queer players.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe [WNBA] has been lauded for its world-renowned athletes, but there\u2019s no denying it\u2019s also frequently used for bad-faith arguments about gender, race and sexuality. Misogyny in women\u2019s sports \u2014 like in society \u2013 is often subtle,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHowever, in this instance, the message\u2026is loud and clear. This is not just a prank or an opportunistic viral moment, but another attempt to demean women in sports.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLegitimacy: this seems to be what has so many WNBA players and staff frustrated about this viral incident. Even more people are talking about the WNBA, but this time, it\u2019s not about their skill. It\u2019s about people \u2014\u00a0and a lot <\/em>of men \u2014\u00a0turning the idea of some of the best basketball players in the country getting hurt by a flying dildo into a laugh on social media. For players, it seems that it doesn\u2019t feel like a joke anymore \u2014 it feels targeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tOn Aug.1, Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham tweeted, \u201cstop throwing dildos on the court\u2026you\u2019re going to hurt one of us.\u201d Five days later, the guard was hit with a dildo launched from the stands. While she joked about it on her podcast Show Me Something<\/em>, she also noted the viral prank has been extremely frustrating in the midst of the WNBA\u2019s continued fight for legitimacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe bounce that thing had! I just know how things go viral now. If that thing came from the rafters or bows and just slapped me right in the face, that would be what I\u2019d be known for for life,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s trying to make sure the W is not a joke and it\u2019s taken seriously and then that happens. I\u2019m like, \u2018How are we ever going to get taken seriously?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the past five years, the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has gone from a struggling and underpaid league to a dominating force in U.S. sports. The journey wasn\u2019t easy, with coaches and players facing discrimination, struggling ticket sales, and a battle for equal pay they\u2019re still fighting. But the WNBA\u2019s most recent issue is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3504,364,4113,415,7776,3894],"class_list":{"0":"post-14570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-league","9":"tag-people","10":"tag-sex","11":"tag-stop","12":"tag-throwing","13":"tag-toys"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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