What Are Those Weird Devices Basketball Players Are Holding?

The mood during the second half of the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball national title game was predictably intense. In what would later be revealed as the most-watched women’s college game of all time, the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks were looking to close out a perfect season against Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark. The score margin had rarely left single digits. Players on both squads were leaving everything on the floor. As Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley instructed her team during time-outs, trainers passed around the typical things athletes need to recover from an intense effort: water bottles, towels, sports drinks. Also being passed around, though, were handheld devices featuring a metal container and copper extensions, which several SC players held at each break. These thick black cylinders had small copper tubes coming out of their tops, tapered off to look almost like an oversized wine bottle being held by its neck. These are “palm-cooling” devices called Narwhals, so nam ... Read full article.