It got ugly during the Minnesota Lynx’s 91-86 victory over the Dallas Wings Tuesday night in Minneapolis. So ugly in fact that three fans were ejected for verbally accosting Wings forward Satou Sabally as she writhed in pain on the court after suffering an ankle injury.
“Disgusting fan base in Minny,” Sabally tweeted. “The Schadenfreude to see someone get hurt can’t be a WNBA culture. Terrible words from the sidelines all game long.”
Some fans began yelling at Sabally after she was called for a technical foul after shoving Lynx forward Bridget Carleton with 2:31 left in the game. The All-Star forward then rolled her ankle with 25.1 seconds remaining when she went up for a shot and her foot landed on Carleton’s foot.
Carleton was ejected for her second flagrant foul, but while Sabally was on the court and in pain, she said she heard Lynx fans cheering her injury.
Here's the two principle incidents where fans were ejected behind the Lynx bench pic.twitter.com/sNENN8NOlB
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) August 23, 2023
Sabally eventually got up and sank all three free throws. After her second free throw she blew a kiss to the fans, which reheated things to the point that a third fan was ejected.
Marney Gellner was the play-by-play announcer for the game on Bally Sports North. She described it as a poor representation of Lynx basketball.
“There is a fan sitting in the second row. She is a Lynx fan and she has been completely inappropriate tonight,” said Gellner. “She is yelling at a player that is hurt on the court and even Cheryl Reeve is asking the fan to stop. She has been at it for most of the second half tonight and I honestly hope they’re asking her to leave because it has not been a good representation of Minnesota Lynx basketball, at all.”
Gellner said the fan had words for her as she was escorted out, but the announcer couldn’t hear what was said.
“I can handle a lot and so can our players as you know,” Dallas coach Latricia Trammell said. “But when Satou goes down and you have someone in the stands that yells out, ‘I’m glad you’re hurt,’ there’s no place for that. [Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve] did apologize for that, still doesn’t make it right. But yeah, I mean, this league isn’t about that.”
I asked Wings coach Latricia Trammell about the end of the game and the Satou injury with the Minnesota crowd.
She had this to say: pic.twitter.com/31SrDHZww9
— isaac (@isaacappelt) August 23, 2023
The Lynx won the game and are now 16-17 overall following an 0-6 start to the season. They’re tied for fifth in the WNBA with seven games left in the regular season, including a rematch with the Wings in Dallas on Thursday night. Dallas is two games in front of the Lynx and in fourth place, so it’s a huge game if Minnesota wants to secure a top four seed in the playoffs.
