An athlete who makes two separate trade requests in six months will probably not have public opinion on her side. But it’s also true that to this point in Marina Mabrey's WNBA career, luck has not been on her side either. When she asked out of the young, rebuilding, and sort of aimless Chicago Sky midway through last season, the 28-year-old guard landed with a team squarely in the championship mix.
The Connecticut Sun were the embodiment of "run it back." For years, they built around the same core of Alyssa Thomas, Brionna Jones, and DeWanna Bonner. They added and subtracted here and there, but they were almost frustrating in their total consistency and ability to withstand the injuries Thomas and Brionna Jones suffered, to keep chugging along even after trading an MVP like Jonquel Jones. It didn’t seem to matter to the Sun's braintrust that the results were frustrating, too. In the worse years, they were a tough out in the semis; in the better years, they lost in the Finals instead.
So it's strange to feel so sure that an era has ended in Connecticut after this offseason. For the first time in a while, the Sun are a totally different and much worse team. At her request, Thomas was traded to Phoenix along with point guard Tyasha Harris. Bonner, an unrestricted free agent, signed with the Fever. Most Improved Player DiJonai Carrington ended up in Dallas in the same four-team trade that sent Satou Sabally to the Mercury. And Brionna Jones, also a UFA, signed with the Atlanta Dream in free agency; she'll be in some mysterious platoon center arrangement with fellow free-agent signing Brittney Griner. The Sun are no longer running it back, but staggering forward. This team, which was one game away from the Finals last season, now won't return a single one of their starters.
Mabrey, who has one year left on one of the league's bigger contracts, is not so keen to stick around either. Earlier this month, ESPN reported that she was requesting a trade out of Connecticut. Mabrey cost the Sun their first-round pick in the upcoming draft, plus a pick swap in the next one. They got what they paid for: She shot well off the bench last season and had some monster games in the playoffs. The trade was an all-in move from the start, one the Sun made knowing the 2025 offseason might go the way it has.
Mabrey has been in a similar situation before in her career: The Dallas Wings traded her to the Chicago Sky, then a team reeling from a mass exodus of stars. Because of what they invested in acquiring her, and perhaps because of the market for Mabrey’s contract right now, the Sun say they do not plan to honor the trade request. “We knew at the time that she had already forced her way out of two teams, so it was a bit risky for us to trade for her, but we felt like it was worth it,” Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti said in a recent interview with Sportico.
Mabrey’s always colorful agent Marcus Crenshaw offered his own unique framing. “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,” he told ESPN's Alexa Philippou.
Rizzotti said to Philippou that the trade request denial was “rooted in positivity,” in a sincere hope to build around her. But it's hard to square that claim with the current glut of guards on the Sun roster, which now looks weird and hopeless. This is the deal Mabrey signed, and she may not be able to girlboss her way out of this one, as her agent wishes. But I do feel for her a little; a contract is an agreement that both parties will try to excel. Rizzotti has a bigger problem on her hands as the 2026 Big Bang free agency looms: The Sun are way behind in the facilities arms race that has dramatically reshaped player movement in the league.
“There isn’t an owner in this league that doesn’t think that they will need a dedicated practice facility within the next two to three years to have a W team," Rizzotti told Sportico, though she didn’t mention any plans the Sun had to build their own. When she was still with the team, Thomas complained about having to share their practice court with a kid’s birthday party. On the other hand, I am reliably informed that there is a Frank Pepe at the Uncasville Mohegan Sun.
Mabrey, for her part, seemed in decent spirits when we spoke on Thursday morning in Miami, where she’s been spending the WNBA offseason in the Unrivaled league. (Mabrey injured her calf right before the Unrivaled season started, so she has yet to play a game with the Phantom.) She was looking forward to watching her alma mater, No. 1 Notre Dame, play the Miami Hurricanes in the evening. Deftly holding a container of lunch in one hand while thwacking a rubber ball against the floor with the other, she smiled and said she could not comment on the trade situation.
