Mabrey was raised in Belmar, New Jersey to Patti and Roy Mabrey.[7] She has two brothers Ryan and Roy and two sisters Michaela and Dara. It was Roy's and Michaela's love of basketball that first involved Marina in the game. Her mother coached basketball in their area and Marina, Roy and Michaela would go along with their mother and join in the practices. Fierce basketball competition became a part of family life in the Mabrey household with Marina frequently competing with her older brother and sister in their driveway and local park.[8][9][10]
Despite her sister Michaela's success as part of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team[9] Marina doubted whether or not to choose that college when she was considering many offers for a basketball scholarship after high school. She chose to join up with coach Muffet McGraw's squad in 2015.[10]
College career
Mabrey joined sister Michaela in the 2015–16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team following a season in which the team were runners-up in the national championship but required to be rebuilt. She quickly established herself and won "rookie of the week" in November 2015 after recording a triple-double at Valparaiso. Her 35 appearances as a rookie, 85 three-pointers (which ranks as the second most for a single season in program history) and an impressive 10.7 points per game gained her honors in the ACC All-Freshman Team (Blue Ribbon Panel & Coaches) and ACC All-Academic Team.[12]
The Notre Dame team for the following two years saw records fall, two national championship games and one championship victory. Mabrey was a key component of a team that survived a rash of injuries that won the 2018 national championship and commented later that the injuries had given the now smaller team an added mental toughness that "there is no-one else to sub in" and that they had to battle through.[13] The fighting mentality led to comebacks throughout the season with Mabrey moving to a more direct point guard role and taking more leadership with the largest fightback in Notre Dame history coming back against Tennessee from 23 points behind. The team executed the largest comeback in a championship game in NCAA women's basketball history, overcoming a 15-point deficit to achieve a 61–58 victory over fellow No. 1 seed Mississippi State.[14]
She graduated in 2019 as Notre Dame's all-time leader in made three-pointers with 274; 1,896 career points ranks eighth all-time and a career 81.7 percent from the line – ranking sixth for Notre Dame.[12]
Professional career
WNBA
Los Angeles Sparks (2019)
Mabrey with the LA Sparks in 2019.
Mabrey was drafted 19th overall in the 2019 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks.[15][16] The Sparks, under new head coach Derek Fisher, reached the play-off semi-finals with a regular season record of 22–12.[17] Mabrey saw limited minutes during the playoffs.[18] She appeared in 31 games with the Sparks during her rookie season and averaged 4.0 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists while shooting 34.4% from the field.[19]
Dallas Wings (2020-22)
Prior to the 2020 WNBA season, Mabrey was traded by the Sparks to the Dallas Wings for a 2021 second round draft choice.[19] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 WNBA season was reduced to a 22-game regular season at IMG Academy, without fans present.[20] In 19 games for the Wings, Mabrey averaged 10.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game.[21]
On July 17, 2024, Mabrey and a 2025 2nd round pick from the Chicago Sky, was traded to the Connecticut Sun in exchange for guards Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson, a 2025 1st round pick and the rights to swap 2026 first round picks.
Overseas
For the 2019–20 season, Mabrey moved to Latvia to play for TTT Riga.[22] In her first game[23] she scored 24 points and led her team with eight rebounds to win 89–81 over defending champions UMMC Ekaterinburg which contained WNBA players Brittney Griner, Courtney Vandersloot and Emma Meesseman. Riga won only two of the following nine matches that were played.[24] Mabrey settled in well in a young team[25] and at the suspension of play she was eighth in the league in points per game (15.8).[26] She left Latvia in mid-March after European play was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[27][28]
For the 2020–21 season, Mabrey moved to Israel to play for Bnot Hertzeliya. In 22 games, she averaged 23.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 2.4 steals per game.[21]
Mabrey signed with the Perth Lynx in Australia for the 2021–22 WNBL season.[29] In her debut for the Lynx on January 2, 2022, she scored a game-high 30 points with seven 3-pointers in an 88–86 loss to the Adelaide Lightning.[30] On January 23, she scored 34 points in an 86–81 win over the Sydney Uni Flames.[31] Following this game, she was unavailable for over a month due to a foot injury[32][33] but returned to contribute to the Lynx ending the season as runners-up in the WBNL to Melbourne Boomers after losing the final series by two matches to one.[34]
In 2023 she won her first national title since the 2018 NCAA tournament when she and team Famila Schio won the Coppa Italia beating Venezia 73–62 with Mabrey scoring eleven points in the final.[35] Having qualified for the Scudetto playoffs, Mabrey's twenty four points and dominant performance in the third quarter of the quarter final pulled her team from a weak first half against Campobasso to a twenty four point victory. She followed this up two weeks later with seventeen point performance and vital bucket and interception in the last seconds to win a bronze medal with PF Schio for third place in the 2022–23 EuroLeague Women finals in Prague. This was the first medal performance for an Italian team in twenty years and PF Schio's first ever appearance in the finals.[36] Within two weeks she added the gold medal for the Italian championship turning in a thirty seven point performance in the final game including a crucial three pointer in the last seconds as PF Schio beat Virtus Bologna 84–79 in the decisive second match of the play-offs.[37]
In 2019, Mabrey started her own shirts called This Is My Kitchen in reference to sexism in sports and her 2018 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship win which she sold online for a limited time.[45]
^LoGiudice, Daniel. "WNBA Draft 2019: Marina Mabrey selected by Los Angeles Sparks", Asbury Park Press, April 10, 2019. Accessed July 3, 2019. "Mabrey, a Belmar native, became the second player ever from the Shore Conference to be drafted in the WNBA Draft after Neptune and Seton Hall alum Shakena Richardson was selected 30th overall by the Dallas Wings in 2016.... She won two Tournament of Champions titles with Manasquan."
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