The WNBA is heading into the final stretch of a thrilling season.
The Minnesota Lynx are chasing history, on pace to put up the most wins in a season of any WNBA team ever.
On Sunday, Las Vegas Aces star and reigning league MVP A’ja Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to score at least 30 points and grab 20 rebounds in one game.
The expansion Golden State Valkyries are putting together an against-all-odds season that could make them the first team in the league’s history to make the playoffs in their first season.
But even as the WNBA grows its mainstream popularity, toxic pranks threaten to overshadow all of this excellent basketball. Instead of the thrilling on-court storylines and budding rivalries, too many WNBA headlines this summer have been about R-rated high jinks. On multiple occasions in recent weeks, someone in the crowd at a game has tossed a bright-colored sex toy toward the court, disrupting play or hitting fans.
Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham put out a public plea on Aug. 1 for the behavior to stop. Just a few days later, she was nearly hit by a sex toy during an away game against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Suspects, both young men, were arrested following additional incidents in Phoenix and Atlanta. In New York, the NYPD is looking for a man who threw a sex toy that did not make it to the court but struck a 12-year-old girl. Police shared a photo of a potential suspect, who appeared to be wearing not New York Liberty gear, but a “Beavis and Butt-Head” T-shirt.
So what’s going on here? So far, it’s looking like a combination of idiocy, clout-chasing and cash.
ESPN reported that the 23-year-old suspect arrested in the incident in Atlanta said it was “supposed to be a joke and this joke [was] supposed to go viral.”
So what’s going on here? So far, it’s looking like a combination of idiocy, clout-chasing and cash.
But it could be even more coordinated than that. Last week, USA Today reported that the creators of a cryptocurrency meme coin say they were responsible for at least some of the “pranks,” which were designed to create buzz around the launch of their neon-green-dildo-themed crypto coin.
The creators’ spokesperson denied any intent to harm and said, “We didn’t do this because like we dislike women’s sports.”
But it’s hard not to see it any other way. While the creators pointed to incidents like a pair of Buffalo Bills games in 2016 and 2018, where someone also tossed a sex toy onto the field, the crypto promoters miss a few crucial issues.
Most importantly, there’s a different implication when sex toys are being thrown at women. Not to mention the fact that WNBA games are, by design, supposed to be safe spaces for women, nonbinary people and families. But that hasn’t stopped some on the right, unsurprisingly, from treating the whole thing like one big overreaction. Donald Trump Jr. posted an obviously fake but nonetheless surreal image of his father, President Donald Trump, throwing a green dildo from the roof of the White House onto a basketball court of mostly Black WNBA players on the ground below. Fox News regular Clay Travis, founder of the right-wing sports blog OutKick, has mocked the WNBA for being upset and posted odds from sites taking bets on what will happen next. Both Trump Jr. and Travis have claimed they are out to “save women’s sports” in their zealous attempts to persecute transgender people, and yet they to seem to have no interest in protecting or supporting women athletes who are literally asking for help. And elite female athletes are far from immune from sexual harassment and abuse. In 2022, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates published a report for U.S. Soccer detailing allegations of abuse by three coaches in the National Women’s Soccer League, as well as a widespread culture of harassment. And the millions paid to Larry Nassar’s victims came after high-profile gymnasts including Simone Biles and Aly Raisman said the FBI did not properly follow up on their claims of Nassar’s misconduct. Hopefully, this incredibly stupid trend has finally played itself out. With a few weeks left before the playoffs, WNBA players deserve so much better than to be exploited for some childish misogyny. And so do their fans.
Roey Hadar
Roey Hadar is a producer for MSNBC, working on “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.” 
