In the supercharged atmosphere of the current WNBA season, every move, every word, and every glance involving rookie phenom Caitlin Clark is magnified, dissected, and debated with a fervor typically reserved for championship games. Players who share the court with her are thrust under an intense microscope, their actions judged not just by officials, but by millions in the court of public opinion. For Chicago Sky guard Marina Mabrey, one split-second decision earlier this season cast her as a villain in a narrative that quickly spun out of her control. Now, looking back, Mabrey is offering a rare moment of introspection, admitting that in the heat of the moment, she “probably overreacted.”

The incident in question has been replayed countless times on sports shows and social media feeds. It was a chaotic sequence during a game between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Mabrey’s then-team, the Connecticut Sun. It began with Mabrey’s teammate, Jacy Sheldon, getting overly physical while defending Clark, poking her in the eye. Clark, clearly agitated, retaliated with a shove. In an instant, the situation escalated. Mabrey and veteran Tina Charles converged on Clark, and it was Mabrey’s decisive shove that sent the rookie stumbling to the ground. The whistle blew, and the firestorm began.

On the court, the initial ruling was a series of technical fouls. Sheldon was hit with a Flagrant 1 for the initial contact. Clark received a technical for her reaction. And both Mabrey and Charles were given technicals for escalating the situation. After the game, officiating crew chief Ashley Gloss stood by the decision, explaining that Mabrey’s actions “did not rise to the level of an ejection” and “did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two.” For a moment, it seemed that the on-court ruling would be the final word.

But the game on the court was only half the battle. Off the court, the incident had gone viral. Fans of Clark were incensed, flooding social media with calls for a harsher penalty. They saw a targeted attack on the league’s biggest star, another example of the league’s veterans trying to “welcome” the rookie with excessive physicality. The pressure mounted, and the following day, the league office intervened. After a review, Mabrey’s technical foul was upgraded to a Flagrant Foul 2. While she escaped an in-game ejection, the post-game ruling served as a formal reprimand and came with a fine. It also cemented the public perception of Mabrey as an antagonist.

In a recent interview with Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Mabrey finally shared her perspective, and it’s far more nuanced than the villainous caricature she’s been painted as. “I thought it only got upgraded to a flagrant 2 because of the way the fans reacted to it,” she stated, echoing a sentiment felt by many players that the “Caitlin Clark effect” extends to officiating and league decisions. Mabrey stood by her initial, defiant reaction to the controversy but was adamant that her intentions were not malicious. “Obviously, I’m not trying to hurt anybody. I’m not trying to go after certain players,” she clarified.

The core of her defense was simple: she was protecting her teammate. “My teammate is getting hit, and I’m not okay with that,” Mabrey explained. From her vantage point, she saw Clark shove Sheldon, and her instinct was to intervene. It’s a common, almost primal, reaction in team sports. But in this case, the player she shoved was no ordinary opponent; it was Caitlin Clark.

This is where her candid admission adds a fascinating layer of humanity to the story. “I probably overreacted a little bit,” Mabrey conceded, acknowledging that her emotions got the better of her. Yet, she was quick to separate that emotional reaction from any preconceived animosity toward Clark. “It wasn’t like, ‘I hate her! Here I go!’ I don’t do stuff like that. Everybody knows that I’ve never done that before.”

Her career backs this up. With 20 technical fouls over her career, she plays with passion, but she does not have a reputation as a dirty player. The flagrant foul for the Clark incident was only the second of her entire WNBA career, and she has never been ejected from a game. Her comments paint a picture not of a calculated aggressor, but of a competitor who made a split-second, emotional decision in a high-pressure environment—a decision she now views with a degree of regret.

Mabrey also added crucial context, recalling an incident from the previous season’s playoffs where Clark shoved her while going for a loose ball. In that moment, Mabrey and her teammates didn’t retaliate or complain; they accepted it as the cost of competition. “It was a play on the ball when she did it,” Mabrey remembered, drawing a line between a basketball play and what she perceived as a reaction to a teammate getting hit.

Her story is a powerful testament to the immense pressure cooker the WNBA has become. Every action involving Clark is scrutinized, turning routine physical plays and emotional reactions into national news. Players are now forced to navigate not only the game itself but also the narrative that surrounds it. Mabrey’s admission is not an excuse, but an explanation—a glimpse into the human element of a moment that became larger than life. It reveals the internal conflict of a player caught between the instinct to defend a teammate and the reality of playing against the most-watched athlete in the sport, where a simple shove can make you public enemy number one.