On August 18, the Indiana Fever faced the Toronto Tempo in a highly anticipated matchup, but no one expected the game to take the turn it did. Kelsey Mitchell – one of the league’s top scorers – got into a heated altercation with Tempo star Marina Mabrey, and more than a week later, WNBA legend Candace Parker has now given her rather blunt take on what went down.
“Kelsey being heated like this and then putting her finger in her face, and Marina – she crazy. We all know. I play with Marina. I love her to death, but she crazy,” Parker said in the latest episode of Post Moves. “But her looking off into the distance, it’s like separate crazies in this right here. So like Kelsey putting her finger in the face and Marina just looking off into the distance… And then it’s like keep it moving.”
Less than a minute into the third quarter, Mitchell lost her cool after repeated physical plays from Marina Mabrey. And that prompted the Fever guard to push the Tempo guard away as she was caught on camera saying something to Mabrey. And having shared the court with Mabrey as a teammate for a season before going up against her for another four, Parker knows firsthand just how much physicality the Tempo star brings.
Mabrey has always played with an edge, never backing down from a physical battle on the floor. But her sequence with Mitchell ended up costing both players a technical foul, which was Mabrey’s fifth of the season and Mitchell’s second.
Under WNBA rules, Mitchell was fined $500 for her technical, while Mabrey was fined $1,000. And since it was Mabrey’s fifth technical of the season, the league was also expected to send her a warning letter as she moves closer to the eight-technical-foul threshold that would result in a one-game suspension.
Still, Mitchell ultimately had the last laugh that night. She led the Fever to a 101-95 win with a team-high 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting, along with three rebounds, two assists, and one steal.
And while Mabrey’s fiery personality has made her one of the league’s most entertaining players to watch, the Toronto Tempo’s journey in their inaugural season will come to an end after the regular season.
The Tempo currently sit in 13th place in the WNBA standings, and with just six games left to play, they have already been ruled out of the playoffs. Still, Marina Mabrey’s performance this season is worth noting.
The 29-year-old entered Toronto after averaging 14.6 points per game in her career, but that number has jumped to 20.8 this season. She also produced one of the most memorable individual performances of the season, dropping a historic 53 points on June 25 as the Tempo set a franchise record with 125 points.
But Mabrey’s individual success was not enough to carry the Tempo into the postseason. And while Toronto’s inaugural campaign may be over after the regular season, the guard has given the expansion franchise plenty to build around heading into its second year.

