The trend is back: sex toys thrown onto the court, WNBA game interrupted

The strange and embarrassing trend that has become a known phenomenon in the WNBA returned over the weekend in a big way. The game last night (between Friday and Saturday) between the Chicago Sky and the Golden State Valkyries was interrupted during the third quarter after several sex toys were thrown from the stands onto the court. Players from both teams remained on the court while security personnel worked to clear the items, and the game resumed after a short delay. The incident occurred during Chicago's dramatic 73:70 victory over Golden State.

For the league, this is a particularly disturbing event because it came just a day after a similar case in another playoff game between the Atlanta Dream and the Los Angeles Sparks. There, too, a sex toy was thrown onto the court, causing a short break in the game. In Los Angeles, the event took another turn when security personnel managed to identify and detain the suspect. According to reports, a man tried to leave the arena after throwing the object but was stopped by security, received a citation, and was released with a ban from the arena.

At the game in Chicago, club officials began checking security footage to identify the person or persons responsible. At this stage, no arrests have been reported, but the event sparked a sharp reaction from one of the team's prominent players.

"You are just pathetic," said Natasha Cloud, who led Chicago with 17 points. "The men who throw this show how weak they are. And it says a lot about what they think of women."

Despite the strangeness of the events, this is a return of a phenomenon that stirred the WNBA as early as last season. During 2025, a series of cases were recorded in which sex toys, in some cases green in color, were thrown onto the court during league games. The cases quickly went viral on social media, and at one point, parties involved in promoting cryptocurrencies even took responsibility for some of the incidents. This sparked criticism regarding the use of WNBA games as a stage for publicity stunts, harming the proper conduct of the game and the players. A total of about five incidents of this type occurred during the 2025 season, with similar cases recorded in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles, where police involvement and arrests were sometimes required.