WNBA sex toys timeline: Every incident involving fans throwing neon green objects at games

WNBA sex toys timeline: Every incident involving fans throwing neon green objects at games originally appeared on The Sporting News

WNBA games have been plagued by an all-too-familiar sight as of late, with seven confirmed cases of bright green dildos being launched toward the floor in recent weeks.

Four of those occurrences have seen the sex toys reach the floor. Another three have landed in the concourses.

Multiple arrests have been made, while players, coaches, and media members alike have pleaded with the general public to stop the dehumanizing act.

Nevertheless, the gesture — which could be argued to play on tropes regarding the league and its largely queer and largely Black population — continues to rear its ugly head at WNBA contests.

Here’s what you need to know about the recent incidents as well as their potential origins.

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WNBA sex toy timeline

July 29: First sex toy tossed onto court during Dream-Valkyries matchup

The first incident took place on July 29 during a matchup between Atlanta and Golden State. With less than a minute left in the game and the two sides level at 75, the green dildo made its dismount, flying from the stands onto the floor after being fired onto the court by a then-unnamed assailant.

The device nearly made contact with a Valkyries player. It was disposed of by an Atlanta security guard, who whisked the object away with a towel.

Aug. 1: Second incident occurs during Valkyries-Sky

The Valkyries’ Aug. 1 road clash with the Sky brought about the second occurrence of a dildo crashing onto the floor. The bright green apparatus was thrown onto the court early in the third quarter of the matchup, prompting a halt to the action. The referee once again responded quickly, kicking the toy out of the way to preserve the sanctity of the game.

Participants expressed outrage over the gesture. Chicago center Elizabeth Williams labeled the act “immature.”

“Whoever is doing it just needs to grow up,” Williams said.

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Aug. 5: Three games scorned by sight of dildos

Three games that took place on Aug. 5 were felled, at least momentarily, by dildos. The Fever’s joust with the Sparks at Crypto.com Arena was briefly stopped after an onlooker rifled another green sex toy onto the court, this one appearing to collide with Indiana wing Sophie Cunningham.

Cunningham was vocal about her distaste for the gesture on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

“Stop throwing dildos on the court,” Cunningham wrote. “You’re going to hurt one of us.”

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Plum kicked the dildo off the floor after sinking her first free throw.

Two other incidents took place involving sex toys that same night — one during the Mercury-Sun fixture at PHX Arena, the other involving the Liberty and Wings at Barclays Center.

While the sex toy touched down on the floor in Indiana’s matchup with Los Angeles, the same couldn’t be said in New York. The dildo fell short of the court, landing in the concourses instead.

Aug. 5: Fans arrested for throwing green dildos at Dream, Mercury games

An 18-year-old Arizona man was arrested after allegedly throwing a dildo towards the floor at the Mercury-Sun game. Police said the spectator pulled the sex toy from his sweater pocket and launched it toward the floor. It struck a spectator in the back.

The man told police the gesture was a prank that he saw trending on social media. A volunteer at the arena followed the man after witnessing the incident and tackled him.

Police reportedly booked the man on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct, and publicly displaying sexual material. The arrest came days after a 23-year-old Georgia man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, public indecency/indecent exposure, and criminal trespass related to the July 29 incident at the Dream-Valkyries game.

Aug. 7: Cryptocurrency group claims responsibility for some of the incidents, distances itself from arrests

A collective of unnamed cryptocurrency investors claimed responsibility for some of the attacks on Aug. 7, revealing that the act was part of a rollout of a meme coin created on July 28.

The meme coin’s community, titled Green Dildo Coin, was erected to protest the “toxic” environment in cryptocurrency, according to USA Today. The people behind the cabal are unknown. But they’re believed to have coordinated some of the incidents on social media, per The Athletic.

Livestreams regarding the use of bright green dildos at WNBA games — likened to “giant green, aggressive, and erect candles” by the collective’s founder, Lt. Daldo Raine (a spoof of Brad Pitt’s character, Lt. Aldo Raine, from Quentin Tarantino’s film, “Inglourious Basterds”) — routinely featured disparaging commentary about the league and its players.

“The attention we created for a ($40) dildo and ($140) seats is next level,” said one member of the community, per The Athletic. “This is empowering to every f—ing crypto community to start thinking outside the box. Get creative and do something that makes people actually laugh. Meme coins should make you laugh. Memes should make you laugh.

“This is a movement to me to empower the average f—ing teacher. I don’t care if you have 100,000 followers or 10 followers. Your f—ing posts matter, they have the ability to go viral, as long as they’re actually f—ing funny.”

A spokesperson for the community called the gesture lighthearted and a “prank” in an interview with USA Today. They recoiled at the suggestion that they would attempt to harm someone or that the sex toys were disrespectful to women athletes.

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“We didn’t do this because we dislike women’s sports. 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 spokesperson vowed that other “pranks” are on the horizon, but they’re “a lot lighter, a lot more tasteful.” They also claimed that neither of the two arrests had anything to do with them.

The spokesperson’s comments came hours after Donald Trump Jr. shared an AI-generated image of his father, President Donald Trump, watching on as a green dildo fell on a WNBA court.

“Posted without further comment,” Trump Jr. captioned the image.

Aug. 7: Two more incidents of dildos being thrown at games recorded

The Aug. 7 nightcap saw dildos tossed in yet another game. A purple sex toy was thrown onto the court in the waning moments of Atlanta’s 86-65 win.

According to Front Office Sports’ Colin Salao, a second object was thrown towards the floor, but it landed behind the Dream’s bench.

Who is throwing sex toys at WNBA games?

If the Green Dildo Coin community is to be believed, the people tossing green dildos at WNBA games are simply cryptocurrency enthusiasts unhappy with the state of crypto markets and copycats tickled by the image of WNBA players having to avoid sex toys being thrown at them.

Those queried on the decision to launch bright green dildos at women’s basketball players have, by and large, described the gesture as a “joke” or “prank.” According to The Athletic, the incidents have precipitated a major windfall for the trading prices of $DILDO. Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction model, fielded bets on whether disturbances would occur during WNBA games, while the $DILDO trading price went up 22.7 percent between Aug. 6 and Aug. 7, according to coingecko, a cryptocurrency website.

Why are fans throwing sex toys at WNBA games?

Those in the cryptocurrency community have called the incidents light-hearted “jokes” aimed at casting a light on the current state of affairs in cryptocurrency. Raine said the goal of the disruptions is to “more or less create attention”, he told USA Today on Aug. 7.

The sex objects launched towards the hardwood have featured drawn-on sunglasses and the name of the meme coin. It’s a reflection of the lighthearted nature they want the memecoin to represent, the spokesperson said.

“We wanna shift the culture in crypto, and we wanna be the 1,000 against the one,” the spokesperson said.

The Green Dildo Coin community has plans of ratcheting up the disruptions in “lighter” and “more tasteful” ways in the coming days and weeks, the spokesperson explained. Whether that will quell the onslaught of WNBA incidents remains to be seen — Green Dildo Coin didn’t claim responsibility for either of the incidents that ended in arrests, suggesting that copycats could be on the prowl.

The spokesperson rejected claims that the gestures were disrespectful to women athletes. Whether the WNBA’s players — a majority Black, largely queer and largely Black and queer cohort — accept that assertion remains to be seen.

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