Marina Mabrey reflects on Caitlin Clark incident: ‘That was too far’

Few WNBA players compete with the same edge and fire that Marina Mabrey does.

The former national championship winner with Notre Dame likes to talk trash, always plays hard and has a tendency to mix it up with opponents. Every now and then, Mabrey says in a recent podcast interview with Sue Bird, her emotions get the best of her.

In a joint interview with Connecticut Sun teammate Aaliyah Edwards on Bird’s Eye View, Mabrey talked about her “crash outs” — a slang term for moments when people lose control of their emotions and act in a wildly impulsive way.

With Mabrey, the signature “crash out” moment happened last June in a game against the Indiana Fever. Moments after play was halted after Jacy Sheldon seemingly hit Caitlin Clark in the eye while defending her, Clark and Sheldon exchanged some light pushes. Mabrey then came up and blindsided Clark, shoving her to the floor.

Later in the game, Sheldon was wrapped up under the basket by Sophie Cunningham, leading to a scuffle where Sheldon, Cunningham and Lindsay Allen got ejected. Clark scored 20 points and dished out six assists, leading the Fever to secure a spot in the Commissioner’s Cup.

For the Sun, it was their ninth loss in their first 11 games. Mabrey says the losing, combined with Clark cooking their defense, made her boil over.

“I’m 100% aware, like I know when I went too far with things. It’s like shameful. It’s like, ‘Really, Marina? That was ridiculous.’ So like, for example, the Caitlin thing,” Mabrey said. “That was obvious that my emotions of us losing and losing and losing, and then she’s low-key punking our team on top of it — that was too far. That was too much.”

Mabrey said that while responding to a question from Bird about finding the balance between maintaining her competitive edge, but not taking things too far. Mabrey pointed to a moment in Unrivaled this season where she and Sug Sutton exchanged a few pushes and came face-to-face before being separated.

“The little scuffle between me and Sug, that was perfect, because it was just enough that it fueled me and the team,” Mabrey explained. “On the flip side, when we were in Indiana, everyone is booing us, it feels like [expletive], we end up losing by 25, and it’s like, ‘Marina, that’s your fault, buddy. You can’t do that.’ So, just finding the balance where it teeters toward the positive end for me and my team and keeping that there, and knowing when it’s going past that and stopping that before it goes past that.”

Mabrey, playing for the Lunar Owls, leads Unrivaled in scoring this season with 26.8 points per game.