The WNBA are dealing with a bizarre dildo pandemic which has spiralled out of control in recent times.
In the last week, chaos has descended in the WNBA with sex toys thrown onto the court at the Gateway Center, Wintrust Arena, Barclays Center, Crypto.com Arena and PHX Arena.
It all kicked off July 29 in Atlanta during a game between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream, with a green dildo kicked away by an official and removed by a police officer.
Delbert Carver, 23, is said to have been responsible and was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, public indecency and criminal trespass.
Further incidents of the same kind have occurred in Chicago and Los Angeles - the latter seeing Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham grazed with a green sex object on the ankle after a post where she had called for the madness to stop.
Advert
Kelsey Plum of the Los Angeles Sparks kicked it away but there are a total of five known incidents, with an 18-year-old Kaden Lopez arrested after footage showed him throwing a dildo towards the court in Phoenix Mercury's game against the Connecticut Sun.
The dildo did not make it to the court and instead striking a fan who was with his 9-year-old niece and is demanding prosecution.
An apologetic Lopez said what he did was a "stupid prank that was trending on social media" and this prank appears to have started by Cryptocurrency meme coin creators in line with their new 'Green Dildo Coin'.
Advert
"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," a spokesman for the group told USA Today.
"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."
The spokesman claims that the group's motivation is to protest a "toxic" environment in the crypto community because of the rise of influencers and scammers.
However, they stressed that those arrested for throwing sex toys had no connection to the group.
Advert
Polymarket got involved by taking bets on whether sex toys would be thrown in a WNBA game, and what colour they are. According to coingecko.com, the Green Dildo Coin has a 24 hour trading value of $1,273,24 at the time of writing.
On Thursday, the stunts continued during Dream's win over the Chicago Sky, with another two sex toy related incidents.
One green dildo thrown ended up behind the bench of Atlanta but then another purple sex toy was launched on the court and led to another disruption in the fourth quarter.
Players and coaches have not pulled any punches in slamming the trend, with Sparks coach Lynne Roberts calling it "dangerous" and "stupid".
Advert
The WNBA are not taking the issue lightly, confirming that strict punishments are in place for anyone who throws an object on the court.
“The safety and well-being of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league,” the league stated.
“Objects of any kind thrown onto the court or in the seating area can pose a safety risk for players, game officials, and fans.
“In 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.”
Josh Lawless