Just before the WNBA took a break for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Chicago Sky traded Marina Mabrey to the Connecticut Sun in a rare mid-season blockbuster. On Friday, the two teams met for the first time since that deal, and it was clear early that this one meant a little more.
Late in the first quarter, Mabrey flashed into the paint and caught a pass from Brionna Jones. She had the smaller Chennedy Carter on her back, and was trying to use her size to get an easy bucket inside. Carter made sure that didn’t happen by delivering a hard foul as Mabrey spun to the basket.
Mabrey immediately collapsed to the ground holding her face, and was attended to by the Sun’s medical staff. The referrees, meanwhile, went to the monitor to review the play and upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 1 on Carter for unnecessary contact to Mabrey’s head.
That was the fourth flagrant foul of the season for Carter, who leads the league in that category, and is now on the verge of a suspension due to her four flagrant foul points. Any player who has four or five flagrant foul points and commits a Flagrant 1 foul will be suspended for one game; if they commit a Flagrant 2 foul, they will be suspended for two games.
In July, Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Mabrey had actually requested a trade from the Sky. Mabrey then added fuel to the fire by saying earlier this month that playing for the Sun is the first time she’s been part of a team with a “championship mindset.”
It seems that message reached her former team. Early on Friday, the two squads crossed paths at their respective shootarounds, and a video from Mohegan Sun Arena appeared to show the Sky players ignoring Mabrey while interacting with other members of the Sun.
