In a WNBA game so chippy it needed a hazmat crew, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton got ejected for throwing a shoe at Marina Mabrey. Not a metaphorical shoe. An actual, physical shoe. From her teammate.
The moment happened Sunday at Bell Centre in Montreal during the Toronto Tempo’s 93-91 win over the New York Liberty. Under two minutes left in regulation, Jonquel Jones lost her right shoe during a rebound scrum. Laney-Hamilton, apparently trying to return it, chucked it in Mabrey’s direction and drilled the Tempo star in the back while she was talking to her coach.
Laney-Hamilton got tossed. She insisted afterward that it was unintentional.
“I would never intentionally try to hit someone with a shoe, especially while they’re not looking,” Laney-Hamilton told The New York Post. “Teammate was without a shoe, so I did my best to try and get it to her. Unfortunately, it did hit someone.”
Sure. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
The context here is important. Laney-Hamilton and Mabrey had been going at it all night. In the second quarter, Laney-Hamilton hit Mabrey in the face with her arm during a loose-ball scramble and picked up a flagrant 1. In the third quarter, Mabrey shoved Laney-Hamilton to the floor in what looked like clear retaliation, and both got technicals. By the time the shoe incident happened, this was already the most personal WNBA game of the season.
The idea that Laney-Hamilton was just innocently returning a shoe to a teammate stretches credibility. Even if the physical toss was genuine, aiming it at Mabrey specifically is a choice. If you wanted to return the shoe to Jonquel Jones, you throw it to Jonquel Jones, not the opposing team’s star player who is talking to her coach with her back turned.
That is the part that makes it read as intentional. Mabrey was not looking. Mabrey was not near Jones. Mabrey was the person Laney-Hamilton had been physical with all game. The shoe ended up hitting her because that is where Laney-Hamilton pointed it. Or so it appeared to everyone watching.
The WNBA is having a moment in 2026. Attendance is up. Ratings are up. TV deals are exploding. Storylines are everywhere. Marina Mabrey being the villain in Toronto’s expansion year is one of the more delicious side plots of the season, and Sunday made it official.
Mabrey herself dropped 30 points on 9-of-19 shooting in 35 minutes. She led the Tempo to a much-needed win to snap a four-game losing skid. Laney-Hamilton had 6 points off the bench before her early exit.
The Liberty are still contenders. They have the roster to defend their WNBA title. But this loss to an expansion franchise does not look great, and it comes with the added embarrassment of your veteran wing getting ejected for shoe assault.
Expect a fine from the league office. Expect some kind of statement from the Liberty coaching staff. Do not expect an actual suspension because throwing a shoe, while wild, is not exactly a haymaker. The optics are worse than the offense.
The Tempo and Liberty play again in August. Mark your calendars. This is not over.
Marina Mabrey and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton just wrote themselves into next year’s playoff-hype video. All it took was one shoe.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
