There are many ways to identify former Sky guard Marina Mabrey. She’s a middle child. One of the best players in the league to have never been named an All-Star. Inventor of the “Crash-Out Jar,” a running joke in which she deposited dollars after losing her temper in games.
Now, add “face of the franchise” to the list.
The Tempo signed her to a two-year max contract this past offseason, making her and Brittney Sykes the faces of the league’s first Canadian team. She came to Wintrust Arena on Wednesday night averaging a career-high 18 points per game and quickly reminded Sky fans of the Mabrey experience.
Step-back threes. Incredulous conversations with the officials.
Ten points, four assists, four rebounds, two fouls — all in the first half alone.
Mabrey finished with 24 points and the Tempo handed the Sky their third consecutive loss with a 111-104 victory.
It’s been almost two years since Mabrey’s brief but significant stint in Chicago, which ended in a request to be traded to the Sun midway through the 2024 season. At shootaround before the game, she reflected on what the last few years have given her.
“I’ve been in leadership positions in Chicago and Connecticut where there were some things I still needed to learn, and I’m still learning right now, but I think that I took those things and put it into this team,” Mabrey told the Sun-Times.
“I think finding a home helps a lot too. I’ve jumped around trying to find a situation that works for me and my vision for myself.”
The Tempo are Mabrey’s fourth team in six years. She’s moved from Dallas to Chicago to Connecticut, now to Toronto, all before the age of 30.
Few have cycled through as many situations as Mabrey has in recent years. Except, perhaps, for the Sky.
Mabrey saw that chaos firsthand, living through the peak instability of Chicago’s post-2021 championship era. Coach and general manager James Wade, who brought her to Chicago, left in the middle of the 2023 season. Then franchise pillar Kahleah Copper requested a trade.
Those experiences shaped her, too.
“I think knowing that people will come in and out of organizations, you will have different people to work with, but keeping the vision for yourself that you know is you,” she said. “Regardless of who you’re playing around, who’s coming in, who’s not coming in, who’s leaving.
“I think for me, I maybe lost myself a little bit in Chicago, in trying to figure out who I was alongside everyone. . . . I lost the vision of who I know I can be.”
According to Sykes, who has played against Mabrey since childhood, her vision is nothing short of an offensive juggernaut — but one who has learned to wield her emotions rather than be consumed by them.
That’s something Tempo coach Sandy Brondello, a two-time WNBA champion, is trying to facilitate.
“She’s actually quite funny,” Brondello said of Mabrey. “Now, if she crashes out, it’s usually the officials. It’s never at her teammates, which is a good thing. Now it’s more like just don’t get too high or too low.
“But that’s her edge. You don’t want to change someone. That’s her competitive fire. But not letting it affect her overall game.”
Even in a year and a half, Mabrey left a mark on the Sky. She embodies two of their defining characteristics: a willingness to risk draft capital to win now, and a spotty track record retaining stars.
To acquire her from the Wings, Wade traded away a staggering amount of draft capital: a 2023 first-rounder, a 2024 first-rounder and a 2025 pick swap.
It set the tone for a philosophy that current general manager Jeff Pagliocca has maintained. In Chicago, there will be no tanking, no waiting to strike gold in the draft lottery. Every year it’s trying to bring in the best players through trades and free agency, at pretty much whatever cost.
So far, the strategy hasn’t yielded a ton of tangible success — the Sky have missed the postseason the last two years — but it also hasn’t backfired to the proportions one might have imagined.
The Mabrey deal is a perfect example. The 2023 pick the Sky surrendered ultimately became a worthless late first-rounder, and the 2025 swap was canceled entirely when the Wings won the No. 1 pick on their own. Had the Sky been able to retain Mabrey, the trade could have easily aged as a win.
She’s improved every year and is now producing at the level Wade likely envisioned.
Sky coach Tyler Marsh spent pregame talking about the urgent need to find Mabrey in transition and highlighting how quickly she gets off her shot.
“I’m a big fan of Marina, the toughness and competitiveness that she plays with — you accept some other stuff that comes with it,” Marsh said. “I remember when we played Connecticut last year and I got thrown out of that game, I saw Marina after the game, I said, ‘I pulled a you tonight.’ ”
The respect goes both ways.
Mabrey said at shootaround that Pagliocca has built a tougher and more talented roster — which was exactly his goal.
Despite all the turbulence, it appears both sides can still see the best in each other.
Before signing Poffenbarger, the Sky were down to nine active, fully-rostered players.
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