LA Sparks cheerleader takes out mascot, Sparky, in wild collision

Los Angeles Sparks mascot Sparky the Dog took a brutal kick to the head from one of the team cheerleaders on Tuesday. During a break between the game between the Las Vegas Aces, the cheerleader was performing a back handspring but didn’t realize that Sparky was behind them.

As their legs swung around to land, they ended up hitting Sparky right in the face and knocking the mascot to the ground. Cameras of the broadcast caught the moment, which you can view below.

In case yall were too busy giggling over the ATL incident, this just happened in LA pic.twitter.com/iSDTpJlKCC

— Jamie Steyer Johnson (@jsteyz) July 30, 2025

Hopefully the mascot is OK after the hit, as cameras cut away pretty quickly. Sparky was still lying on the ground trying to recover from the kick.

At the time of this writing, the Aces held a 76-57 lead on the Sparks with 8:22 remaining in the game. A’ja Wilson was leading the charge with 27 points on 13-of-18 shooting in addition to seven rebounds.

The Sparks entered Tuesday contest in the midst of a five-game winning streak, but unless something changes drastically in the final eight minutes, it looks like that will be broken. Currently, they are 1.5 games behind the Aces for eighth place in the standings, which is the final playoff spot.

Next up for the Sparks is a road matchup against the Seattle Storm on Friday. They’ll aim to get back in the win column when that tips off at 7 p.m. PT.

Sparks forward Cameron Brink makes return from ACL injury Tuesday vs. Aces

It wasn’t all bad for Los Angeles on Tuesday, as forward Cameron Brink made her return to the court. Brink has been out since June of 2024 when she suffered a torn ACL during her rookie season.

She played 15 games in the 2024 season before suffering the injury, averaging 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds along with 2.3 blocks per game. Brink spoke pregame about what it meant to her after spending more than a year recovering.

“It means the world,” she said. “I’m just very excited. Very humbled by this experience. It’s no easy thing to come back from.”

Brink was the No. 2 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft out of Stanford. Her return comes as the Sparks are one a hot streak, having won five straight games. She will provide an even bigger boost as the team looks make a push to the playoffs.

Brink didn’t play a full workload as the Sparks eased her back into action. As of three minutes remaining, she had played 11 minutes and recorded three points, three rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block.