New York Liberty guard Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was ejected from Sunday's game against the Toronto Tempo after her thrown shoe inadvertently struck opponent Marina Mabrey. The incident occurred late in the fourth quarter of the Liberty's 93-91 loss, derailing a comeback attempt after New York had trailed by 16 points entering the final period.
Laney-Hamilton attempted to return a lost shoe to teammate Jonquel Jones, but the shoe instead hit Mabrey in the back. Officials assessed Laney-Hamilton a technical foul and ejected her from the game. This was not the first contentious moment between the two players in the game; Laney-Hamilton had previously received a Flagrant 1 foul for an earlier exchange with Mabrey.
Following the game, Laney-Hamilton stated that the shoe toss was unintentional. "I would never intentionally try to hit someone with a shoe, especially while they're not looking," Laney-Hamilton said. "Teammate was without a shoe, so I did my best to try and get it to her. Unfortunately, it did hit someone... that's just not something that I would personally do, especially in a moment like that where the game is on the line." Mabrey, however, downplayed the incident, stating she "had to take a couple breaths" but believed Laney-Hamilton was attempting to return the shoe to Jones. "But I'll take the free throw. I'm working on not being rage-baited," Mabrey added.
Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco expressed strong disagreement with the officials' call. "I've never seen anything like that," DeMarco said. "We had all the momentum in the world. A shoe hit somebody. Ejected, free throws. I've also never seen a ref make such an atrocious call when he's on the other side of the floor. She was trying to get the shoe back to Jones; it hit somebody. I think we're just making stuff up. I have no idea. You're asking the wrong person, okay? It was just an atrocious, atrocious end of that game from the officials."