​In the closing moments of the Toronto-Liberty game, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton appeared to fling a shoe toward Tempo guard Marina Mabrey. Mabrey, known for her fiery competitiveness, seemed ready to respond, but she was restrained by Sabrina Ionescu as officials intervened. After a review, Laney-Hamilton was charged with a technical foul and ejected from the game. The sequence left spectators perplexed, and Mabrey’s sister Dara took to social media to question the origin of the shoe, while Mabrey herself offered an explanation for Laney-Hamilton’s action.
“I would never intentionally try to hit someone with a shoe, especially while they’re not looking. A teammate was without a shoe, so I did my best to try and get it to her. Unfortunately, it did hit someone,” Laney-Hamilton explained after the game, per New York Post’s Madeline Kenney. Dara Mabrey later asked on X, “Where did the shoe go from when it was under the basket to Marina’s back?” as the WNBA page Shabazz shared a broadcast clip showing Jonquel Jones losing her shoe just beneath the Liberty’s basket during the sequence preceding the shoe-toss. Yet the camera angles did not clearly capture what happened in the moments that followed. Despite the confusion, Laney-Hamilton remained contrite about the incident.
“I know from how things were progressing throughout the game that it can look a certain way, but that’s not something I would personally do, especially in a moment like that when the game is on the line,” she reiterated.
Laney-Hamilton’s comments also referenced the fact that she had already drawn a flagrant 1 foul for contact with Mabrey’s face, a detail that may have colored perceptions of whether she deliberately threw the shoe at Mabrey. Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco, however, supported Laney-Hamilton, insisting she wasn’t aiming at Mabrey, while simultaneously criticizing the officiating of the game’s finish. “It was just an atrocious, atrocious end of that game from officials,” he remarked.
Mabrey herself indicated that she did not believe Laney-Hamilton threw the shoe with malice. “I think she was really just trying to get the shoe back to JJ,” Mabrey said after the game. Despite the on-court tension, the play resumed and Tempo secured the win, fending off a late fourth-quarter surge by the Liberty. Mabrey, meanwhile, played a pivotal role in snapping New York’s four-game losing streak, pouring in 30 points in a 93-91 victory for her team over the Liberty.
The incident dominated chatter beyond the game, with fans and analysts weighing the optics and the officiating. It highlighted how a single moment can cast a shadow over a tight contest and prompt immediate scrutiny of players’ actions, as well as the referees’ handling of late-game situations. Even with the controversy, Mabrey’s performance stood out in a crucial win for Tempo, underscoring her resilience and ability to deliver when her team needed it most.