Beyond The Game: WNBA Mascots Bring Chaos & Comedy To All-Star Weekend

While the main events of the recent WNBA All-Star Weekend were the game and skills challenges, all eyes were also on the league’s mascots and their hilarious antics. 

Eleven WNBA teams have mascots, and they were all present for the exciting weekend in Indianapolis. And while many TikTokers captured moments with the mascots, not all of the character fun was seen by fans. 

The Las Vegas Aces mascot, BUCKET$, sat down with The Blast to share some of the added fun the WNBA mascots have when they are all together. The wildly popular basketball-loving rabbit also shared a little peek at what it’s like in the WNBA mascot world. 

At last weekend’s WNBA All-Star Weekend, the mascots were out in full force!

Present for the fun: Scorch (Phoenix Mercury), Skye the Lioness (Chicago Sky), Blaze (Connecticut Sun), Lightning (Dallas Wings), Freddy Fever (Indiana Fever), Sparky (LA Sparks), Prowl (Minnesota Lynx), Doppler (Seattle Storm), Pax (Washington Mystics), Ellie the Elephant (NY Liberty), and of course, BUCKET$. 

From dancing moments to playful pranks to hyping up the crowd during the two-day long event, the mascots stole the spotlight often. 

“It’s always a fun time. As you would expect, what is it like when you get so many characters, individuals, and actual mascots themselves, what is it like when you get them all in one place together? It’s a fun time,” BUCKET$ (who will remain anonymous) told The Blast exclusively. 

“We often do our own mascot antics with each other. We’re just a bunch of characters, a bunch of friends. We’re all friends. We talk with each other constantly, so it’s kind of like when you go back to college, or going back to homecoming, so All-Star is our mascot homecoming. It’s nothing but antics and charades and just everything you would think or imagine about having a group of mascots all together in one collective area. That’s exactly what you get at All-Star.”

As one might imagine, it's not often that fans get to see more than one mascot at any given time. They typically stay at their home arenas, cheering on their team and hyping up the fans. But All-Star Weekend offers a change of pace for them, as they all come together for the WNBA star-filled weekend.

Occasionally, multiple mascots may be together for a game, but it's not often.

"Throughout the season, a mascot may have a 'birthday' at a game, or a team may do a kids' day game, so a couple of mascots might get invited out," BUCKET$ said. "A lot of us do get up sometimes with each other at some of those mascot birthdays and kid-based games."

BUCKET$ said that the behind-the-scenes moments with the mascots are fun, and there are no egos in the room.

"We're all characters and we play to our characters strengths and personalities. Just the characters have their own personalities, it's almost like an acting role," BUCKET$ shared.

"One person's character might be clumsy, might be a klutz for lack of a better word, might have two left feet and they're always kind of very slapstick comedy and always tripping over themselves, and you might have somebody else who is very outgoing, and then you might have another one who's super athletic and you see them doing trampoline dunks or riding a unicycle, doing flips, and all types of stuff, so everyone's kind of just those personalities that their character embodies, because they are characters."

But behind the scenes, the mascots are just a "collective group." They chat about "best practices" and like to "talk shop," sharing what works for them in their markets. They also enjoy brainstorming new ideas with each other.

"We like to bounce creative ideas off each other," BUCKET$ told The Blast. "As you imagine, it's a very creative group, so the think tank and the brainstorms and kind of just being able to ideate and pitch those ideas off with each other, and say, 'Hey, what do you think about this?' It definitely allows us to get the wheels turning."

The Blast thought it could be fun to play a little game with BUCKET$ as a way to get a little more insight into the mascots' personalities.

We asked BUCKET$ to imagine that all the WNBA mascots got together to do a "Big Brother" type reality show. And then we asked which mascot came to mind in certain scenarios.

The Blast: "Which mascot would be labeled the troublemaker?" (After asking this question, BUCKET$ wanted to know if he could pick more than just one.)

BUCKET$: "I would say the troublemakers would be, in no particular order, BUCKET$, Prowl, Scorch, Ellie, and Freddie."

TB: "Who would be the flirt?"

B: "That would be...it might be the same group. The troublemakers might also be the same ones that are labeled as the flirts. Again, I would probably say, BUCKET$, Scorch, Freddie, Prowl, Ellie, those are the for sure flirts."

TB: "If BUCKET$ had to choose one mascot to go on a date with, who would it be?"

B: (Laughing) "That's hilarious! I don't know. I'd be curious to hear what people say. I don't watch 'Love Island' or any of those shows but I'd be curious to see what the people say. Would they go BUCKET$ and Ellie? Would they go BUCKET$ and Skye? That's tough for me to say, so I'd be curious to see what the people would say. Sometimes you see some things online from fans. I've seen things about BUCKET$ and Ellie."

TB: "If one of the mascots had to be sent home for bad behavior, who would it be?"

B: "Oh, it would definitely be out of the troublemakers group. In mascot terms, what do we consider to be bad? Because we sometimes can do things that the average human cannot do. It comes with the territory of being a mascot. So technically any of us on any given night. My answer would be anyone on any given night, but it might have to Prowl or Scorch. I really think this is splitting hairs, or fur."

TB: "Who would be the brains of the operation?"

B: "I really feel like that could be a coin flip and I would definitely say I'll put BUCKET$ in that conversation. This one is making me think a little bit. BUCKET$, and kind of makes me go back to that troublemaker group. The troublemakers and the flirts are typically...there's definitely some brains there in that group. I would put Ellie in that conversation, Scorch, Freddie, Prowl, we all kind of just think in our own ways. There's so much talent in that room and so many great ideas that come back from different perspectives. So I feel that the brains of the group could be largely anyone."

TB: "This would be a wild reality show."

B: "I would be there for it. We just need a lot of closed captioning and some voiceovers, or a lot of thought bubbles or whiteboards so we can write down our thoughts and feelings."

According to the Aces' website, BUCKET$ is, "A black-tailed jackrabbit native of the Mojave Desert with origins in Utah and Texas." BUCKET$ "hopped his way from the desert to Las Vegas in the Spring of 2018."

The story continues, "After a long trek in the desert heat, the hare was found resting behind Michelob ULTRA Arena where he was pulled out of a hat by his foot by the Aces who were in search of a new home themselves. The basketball team adopted the rabbit and nicknamed him 'BUCKET$.'"

The rabbit has since become a "symbol of good luck for the Aces." In 2022, he earned his third All-Star selection as a mascot and was the WNBA's Mascot of the Year.

You can see BUCKET$, and possibly interact with the energetic and friendly bunny, at home Aces games. Have your phone ready for when he hops on over to your section because you won't want to miss a photo opp with him.