The WNBA appears to have no answer for the dildos that continue to be heaved onto courts across the league.
Two dildos were thrown onto the court in Chicago late Thursday night, bringing the total number of dildos that have reached WNBA courts to at least five.
The first was at Gateway Center Arena, where the Atlanta Dream play, on July 29. The next incident happened during the Chicago Sky’s game against the Golden State Valkyries on Aug. 1 at Wintrust Arena. On Aug. 5 a dildo reached the court during the Los Angeles Sparks game against the Indiana Fever at Crypto.com Arena, hitting the leg of Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.
There have been at least three other incidents of dildos being thrown at WNBA games, including at Barclays Center and the PHX Arena in Phoenix, but in those cases they did not reach the court.
Two men have been arrested, 23-year-old Delbert Carver in Georgia and 18-year-old Kaden Lopez in Phoenix.
Carver has been charged with criminal trespassing, public indecency, and disorderly conduct, while Lopez was charged with disorderly conduct, assault, and public display of explicit sexual material.
Carver is out on bond, and his case is listed as pending in Clayton County. According to court documents, there is a preliminary hearing scheduled for Lopez on Aug. 25.
The cryptocurrency promoters who say they’re behind many of the incidents said Lopez was one of them, but Carver was not. Front Office Sports asked whether they were responsible for Thursday night’s Chicago incident, and they responded, “I think it was Trump,” along with the cry-laughing emoji and a meme Donald Trump Jr. shared of his father throwing a dildo from the White House roof.
The New York Liberty are working with the New York Police Department to investigate an incident at Tuesday night’s game against the Dallas Wings in which a dildo was apparently thrown. A video posted to social media showed it did not reach the court, but got close, surprising a fan sitting near the visiting tunnel.
The league and 12 of its 13 teams either did not respond or declined to comment when asked what measures it was taking to prevent repeat incidents.
“The safety of everyone at our games is our top priority,” the Las Vegas Aces said Friday in a statement to FOS. “We work closely with the league and arena security to ensure a safe and respectful environment and will continue to do so.”
The league has previously said that any fan throwing an object onto the court will face an automatic one-year ban.
“The safety and well-being of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league,” the league office said in a statement on Aug. 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.”
A spokesperson for the Women’s National Basketball Players Association shared a statement from union executive director Terri Jackson that said the league is investigating the issue.
“Upon our request for an update, the league advised the players’ union that it was investigating claims that individuals were being incentivized to carry out these unsafe stunts,” Jackson said.
“Incentivized” may be referring to the crypto coin some throwers are promoting, or the fact that Polymarket has offered prediction markets on whether dildos will be thrown at particular games. Polymarket has not responded to questions about whether it would void bets from anyone found to have thrown the objects themselves; it is technically not legal to use in the United States, although it is accessible through a VPN.
The WNBA has 10 games slated between Friday and Sunday.
