Like many, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham had plenty of jokes about the recent trend of fans throwing sex toys onto the court during WNBA games. She just didn’t expect her comments to come back to bite — or hit — her.
“If someone threw that thing and like, first of all the bounce, the bounce that that thing had, if that smacked someone in the face you know that that’s going to be plastered everywhere,” she said on her “Show Me Something” podcast on Tuesday, August 5.
Cunningham, 28, was referring to the two incidents that happened in the previous week, one at an Atlanta Dream home game and the other at a Chicago Sky game. In both incidents, a fan threw a neon green dildo onto the court, interrupting play.
“Stop throwing dildos on the court,” Cunningham wrote via X on Friday, August 1. “You’re going to hurt one of us.”
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The Fever were in Los Angeles to face the Sparks on Tuesday, August 5, and, sure enough, a neon green torpedo made its way onto the court, appearing to hit Cunningham in the ankle.
Sparks star Kelsey Plum immediately kicked the intrusive implement off the court and the Sparks finished off a 100-91 win. Cunningham took to X after the game, quoting her original post with, “This did NOT age well.”
The recent phallic frenzy in the WNBA has made for plenty of jokes from players and fans alike, but the league has made it clear that the trend is not acceptable. The fan who threw the first object in Atlanta has since been arrested and the WNBA released a statement reiterating its arena standards.
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“The safety and well-being of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league,” the WNBA said in a statement on Saturday, August 2. “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.”
Referencing women’s basketball’s growth over the past few years, Cunningham added that these incidents detract from the credibility that the WNBA has been working to build.
“Everyone’s trying to make sure the W is not a joke and it’s taken seriously and then that happens,” she said on her podcast. “I’m like, ‘how are we ever going to get taken seriously?’”
Sparks coach Lynne Roberts also had harsh words for the fans disrupting play.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s dumb. It’s stupid,” she said in the team’s postgame press conference. “It’s also dangerous, and you know, player safety is No. 1, respecting the game, all those things.
