Marina Mabrey wants out.
And the Sun are saying, “No, thanks.”
Things are turning ugly in Connecticut with one of the WNBA’s premier teams rejecting the veteran guard’s request to be moved in an offseason that has featured a mass exodus from the franchise.
Mabrey’s agent, Marcus Crenshaw, slammed the Suns for not acquiescing.
“In this current age of women’s empowerment and support of the players, the CT Sun threatening to force Marina Mabrey to play for them after her trade request is mind-boggling,” Crenshaw told ESPN in a statement. “Why would anyone try to force someone to play on their team when they don’t want to be there? It’s counterproductive in a ton of ways and everyone we have spoken to is perplexed about how they are handling Marina, after trading away Hall of Fame caliber players
“The coach parted ways. No free agents returned and they are doing all they can to try and force Marina to stay when she clearly doesn’t want to be there. It’s interesting.”
The Sun have emerged as the Buffalo Bills of the WNBA, putting together eight straight playoff appearances and six straight semifinal berths, including two trips to the finals but zero titles.
This past season included a Game 5 loss in the semis to the Minnesota Lynx.
Instead of trying to run it back, the Suns are going through a massive overhaul.
Head coach Stephanie White left to join the Caitlin Clark-led Fever, while Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner, Brionna Jones, DiJonai Carrington and Ty Harris are all gone.
They are the first WNBA or NBA team since 1970-71 to lose all five starters from their last playoff game in the previous season, according to ESPN.
Mabrey joined the team last year via a trade from the Sky and averaged 14.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.
The Sun sent a first-round pick, two players and a pick swap to Chicago to land the former Notre Dame star, and Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti told ESPN the “value” they “gave up” to land Mabrey and that the organization currently places on her factors into the decision.
“The reasons that we have for not trading Marina are rooted in positivity,” Rizzotti told the outlet. “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.”
The Sun have added players like Tina Charles this offseason, but they may struggle to make it seven straight years with a semifinal appearance after such seismic changes.
“I think there’s probably a lot of professional athletes that are on teams that they don’t necessarily prefer to be on,” Rizzotti told ESPN. “I don’t think that this would be an isolated situation. … I think Marina is as competitive as they come. It’s one of the reasons that we wanted her here … it might also be seen as counterproductive for us to give in to every single trade request, right? So I think sometimes you get put in a no-win situation, and I think we’re trying to be as fair as we can to a lot of different constituents.”
