The Toronto Tempo have agreed to two-year contracts with guards Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes, their agent Marcus Crenshaw of The FAM agency told ESPN on Friday.
With each agreeing to deals at about the max, they are the first-known million-dollar backcourt pairing under the WNBA's new collective bargaining agreement and mark a huge splash for the expansion team.
Mabrey was selected by the Tempo in last week's expansion draft and as their sole unrestricted free agent selection was subsequently cored. Sykes spent the 2025 campaign with the Washington Mystics and Seattle Storm and is the Tempo's first major free agent signing.
After stints in Dallas and Chicago, Mabrey spent the entire 2025 season with the Connecticut Sun and averaged 14.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. She scored 20 or more points in nine games.
Mabrey, a 5-foot-11 guard who was traded by the Sky to the Sun during the 2024 season, asked for a trade before the 2025 season, but Connecticut denied her request.
Despite missing nine games last season with a left knee injury, Mabrey still reached several career milestones: She scored her 1,000th field goal, surpassed 200 steals, grabbed her 800th rebound and recorded her 700th assist. She has made 436 3-pointers in her WNBA career.
Sykes, a 5-foot-9 guard, is coming off the first All-Star nod of her career. The four-time all-defensive team selection averaged 14.1 points, 4.0 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game last season, which she began with the Mystics before being moved at the trade deadline to the Storm.
Prior to her time with the Mystics, Sykes, the No. 7 pick in 2017 out of Syracuse, played for the Atlanta Dream and Los Angeles Sparks.
In 2018, Mabrey won a national championship with Notre Dame, where she still holds the program record for 3-pointers made (274). A second-round pick by the Los Angeles Sparks in 2019, Mabrey has averaged double-digit points for the past eight seasons.
