#87: Glazing: We Need to Find Marina Mabrey a Winning Home

There was a certain someone (white) who lives off of clickbaits (white) who had a rant about people covering women's basketball glazing the players.

I won't link to it, because I don't want to add more publicity to said person who likes the attention. But you can find the article easy enough.

Are there journalistic boundaries needed and are they sometimes crossed? Yeah, absolutely. I've seen it.

But I've also seen said person being fired from her job for literally glazing Caitlin Clark, but I digress.

But since we want to throw that around, fine. I'm going to glaze today.

Once a new CBA is agreed to with the WNBA and WNBPA, there are going to be a ton of free agents looking for homes. Like, anyone not on a rookie contract besides two veterans.

But the one person that I'm watching most closely and rooting to find a winning landing spot is Marina Mabrey.

I'm not even a Mabrey fan like that. I enjoy her game. I enjoy her crash outs. I enjoy watching her.

But she isn't Sabrina Ionescu, Gabby Williams, Satou Sabally, Marine Johánnes, A'ja Wilson, who are my favorite players in the league.

But the reason that I want Mabrey to sign with a winner is because she's spent so much of her North American basketball playing career as a professional playing for teams that are just bad.

Let's take a journey, shall we?

2019 - Los Angeles Sparks: 22-12

A good start for her rookie year! OK, the future looks bright. She's locked in. No worries, right?

2020 - Dallas Wings: 8-14

It was the Wubble year, so it doesn't really count, right? Nothing in the world counted, but it was still a losing season, which would begin the stretch.

2021 - Dallas Wings: 14-18

Full season with the Wings, and a second-straight losing season. Mabrey was hooping though, posting the highest usage rate of her career that season.

2022 - Dallas Wings: 18-18

OK, this wasn't a losing season, but it was on the Mike Tomlin range of "not having a losing season ever!" It would be Mabrey's last season with the Wings.

2023 - Chicago Sky: 18-22

Her first year in Chicago didn't go as planned. The Sky struggled the season before trading away Kahleah Copper and drafting Angel Reese. Mabrey averaged the most points per game of her career, though.

2024 - Chicago Sky/Connecticut Sun: 10-14, 10-6

Mabrey wanted out of Chicago, so they traded her during the All-Star and Olympic break to Connecticut. Connecticut was great that season, of course, with DeWanna Bonner, DiJonai Carrington, and Alyssa Thomas still in town. Ultimately, her combined record that season was 2020.

2024 - Phantom (Unrivaled): 4-10

Mabrey was drafted by the Phantom, which had the worst team in the inaugural season of Unrivaled. She was limited to just three games that year. The Phantom were hampered on defense with Brittney Griner's lack of horizontal movement in the format, as well as prior commitments by Sabrina Ionescu.

2025 - Connecticut Sun: 11-33

Once the Sun traded away Thomas, Bonner, and Carrington, they were entering a full rebuild without a clear direction for their future home (Boston? Houston?). Reports came out that Mabrey asked for a trade before the season, but Connecticut's GM said no.

Despite backlash, the Sun released a statement about not trading her:

"The reasons that we have for not trading Marina are rooted in positivity," Rizzotti told ESPN. "It's rooted in a desire to build around her, have her here, have her be the catalyst for what we want to do offensively, taking advantage of her versatility, knowing that the style that [coach] Rashid [Meziane] plays with will suit her game, and knowing that we can put her in an individual situation to be really successful as this current CBA closes and a new one opens."

Mabrey took it in stride, showing up at the WNBA Draft to welcome her new teammates – Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers – to Connecticut.

Only the Sky and Wings had a worse record than the Sun did.

2025 - Lunar Owls (Unrivaled: 0-3

Last year, it was all "hootie hoo!" but this year, it's all "hootie … who?"

The build of this team made no sense from the beginning.

Retaining Napheesa Collier and Skylar Diggins from last year's squad made sense. But after that … what were DJ Sackmann and Phee building, exactly? They rounded out their roster with Mabrey, Aaliyah Edwards, Rachel Banham, and Becca Allen.

Questionable roster construction from the jump, but then, it was announced right before Opening Day that Phee would miss the season due to double ankle surgery.

And, well, if you didn't see this coming, I don't know what to tell you.

It's bad luck again for Mabrey, who is HOOPING in Unrivaled (she's averaging 27 points per game, second only to Chelsea Gray).

But it hasn't mattered.

The last time that Mabrey was a part of a winning team was her rookie year in Los Angeles, where she played a minimal role averaging 4 points per game.

Before that, you have to go back to her Notre Dame days where the Fighting Irish won a national championship in the 2018 tournament.

She's had success overseas, of course, winning the Coppa Italia with Famila Schio. But she hasn't had the luck in her pro career in the W so far.

There's going to be so much movement when a deal actually takes place. I want my favorite team (Liberty) and players (listed above) to be in a terrific position, but I'm also rooting for Mabrey to finally land on a winning team.

Still keep the crash outs, Marina. And we'll keep glazing.

Until Next Time

I'll see you all back here on Monday. Please take care of each other.

Fuck Ice.

I love you awesome nerds.