The latest trend sweeping the WNBA is, wait for it, for fans to throw sex toys (often bright green) onto the court during live play. And while it may have been a funny meme for a while online and led to some funny reactions among the league’s athletes, longtime Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve is fed up.
During her post-practice media availability on Thursday, Reeve struck a grave tone while decrying the people engaged in the strange trend. The four-time champion coach described her view that, while seemingly silly, the projectile dildos are a way of sexualizing WNBA players and disrespecting them.
“This has been going on for centuries, the sexualization of women,” Reeve said.
“This is the latest version of that, and it’s not funny. And it should not be the butt of jokes on any radio show or in print or in any comments. The sexualization of women is what’s used to hold women down, and this is not different. This is just its latest form, and we should write about it in that way. These people that are doing it should be held accountable. We’re not the butt of the joke. They’re the problem, and we need to take action.”
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve pulled reporters aside after today’s availability to make this comment about the recent trend of s*x toys are being thrown on WNBA courts: pic.twitter.com/oA0nHwluaf
— Shelby Swanson (she/they) (@shelbymswanson) August 7, 2025
Earlier Thursday, USA Today reported on the origins of the odd trend. Apparently, a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts recently launched a “meme coin” called Green Dildo Coin in protest of the “toxic” culture of the crypto community and the influx of scammers in the space.
The first green dildo was thrown onto a WNBA court on July 29, the first of six known incidents. Two people have been arrested, including a young man in Phoenix on Wednesday night, whose attempt to launch the toy onto the court failed.
One of the group’s members insisted to USA Today that the trend was not intended to be sexist:
The spokesman explained that catapulting sex objects (with drawn-on sunglasses and the name of their coin) is to spread awareness about a culture they want to perpetuate, cultivated around jokes, pranks and various stunts. The green sex toy is supposed to mirror a green candle, and if the price of the candle goes up, it represents volatility, which the spokesman for the meme coin group claims is a trader’s dream. The bright color of the object was intentional, he said, to be disruptive and create curiosity.
The explanation will not matter to local law enforcement, who are increasingly attuned to this group and its imitators. No matter what the intention, throwing anything toward live performers endangers them and disturbs the public. The Atlanta man who was arrested was booked for disorderly conduct, public indecency, and criminal trespass.
However, as Reeve notes, the idea goes deeper than the action. The crypto group may not have intended the protest to be gendered, but many fans watching videos of these incidents online are clearly drawing a line between the dildos and the prominence of queer women in the WNBA. That is why Reeve called on the media to cover it as bigotry and for the league to put a stop to it as quickly as possible.
This is just the latest bizarre layer to the strange public reception to the WNBA as it grows into a national brand. From culture wars around Caitlin Clark to online threats and stalking, Many (mostly male) Americans have not been chill at all about women’s league and women’s star athletes stepping into that fame.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.