Indiana Fever forward Sophie Cunningham says a sex toy thrown from the stands during a WNBA game hit her in the left foot, and she kind of wanted to take it home. She made the comments on Theo Von's podcast.
"I got hit by one of them, hit me in the left foot," Cunningham said before bursting into laughter. "No one's taking that home. I lowkey kind of wanted to take it home though, just to be like I was probably the first person to get hit by a dildo while playing in a WNBA game."
That "probably" is hers. The claim that she was the first player hit is Cunningham's own, not an official record.
The toy landed near her at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles with just over two minutes left in the second quarter, according to Yahoo! Sports. CBS News reports that the object landed in the lane near Cunningham, who jumped back in surprise. Then Kelsey Plum kicked it into the stands. Cunningham walked over to the Sparks bench laughing.
It was the third such incident in about a week. According to Yahoo! Sports, adult toys had been thrown onto the court during two separate Golden State Valkyries games before the one in Los Angeles. CBS News reports that a fan was arrested after the Atlanta Dream's game against the Valkyries, and that an adult male was arrested over an incident in Phoenix, per the Phoenix Police Department.
Not everyone found it as funny as Cunningham did. Sparks coach Lynne Roberts called it "ridiculous" and "dangerous," saying player safety comes first, per CBS News. New York Liberty forward Isabelle Harrison wrote on social media, "Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous."
The WNBA said in a statement that any fan who intentionally throws an object onto the court will be immediately ejected and face a minimum one-year ban, in addition to possible arrest and prosecution by local authorities.
So the league treats it as a security problem. Cunningham, for her part, treats it as a lost souvenir.