Cynt Marshall’s Legacy: Dallas Mavericks and beyond

The number of people who have ignored a call from Mark Cuban is small.

The list narrows down to one if you try to find someone who also has beaten colon cancer over 12 rounds of chemotherapy; pioneered diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at corporate giants, such as AT&T; and was the first Black CEO of an NBA franchise.

That’s because there’s only one Cynt Marshall.

The outgoing CEO of the Dallas Mavericks joined the organization in 2018 under dire circumstances, when the team desperately needed an internal cultural facelift. Enter Marshall, who came into the organization and implemented the “Marshall Plan.”

After six years of helping lead the Mavericks, Marshall is taking a step back and retiring at the end of the year from a full-time role. She still plans on being a consultant for the team through 2025, but beyond that, anything is possible for the now 65-year-old with decades in corporate America behind her.

She will be replaced by NBA veteran executive Rick Welts, who most recently was president and COO of the Golden State Warriors (See story, Page 21).

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Leaving wasn’t an easy choice. Marshall had been contemplating it since at least 2021, when her initial three-year contract with the team expired. At the time, the nation was still dealing with the COVID pandemic and the NBA had just exited the bubble a year before, still unsure of when fans would fully return. So Cuban, the team’s owner at the time, and Marshall chose to extend her contract on a yearly basis so she could pick the perfect point to pull away from the franchise.

Though many within the organization, such as Mavericks GM Nico Harrison and current governor Patrick Dumont, have tried to convince her to stay, Marshall is ready for her next chapter.

“It’s time to pass the baton to someone else,” said Marshall, also known as “Cynt the Sprint” from her time running track in high school. “For a long time, I’ve said that between ages 65 to 75, I’d run hard for permanence, stability and education for kids. That’s what I want to do — make the world better for kids.”

Marshall is unshaken in her pursuit for her post-Mavericks life.

“No, nothing is going to change my mind and take me off this course,” she said.

The plan for the Mavericks

It all started with a famous cold-call. Cuban had gotten Marshall’s phone number, but couldn’t get through to her. Little did he know, Marshall was ignoring his calls to offer her a job with the Mavericks simply because she didn’t recognize the number or Cuban.

Marshall and her husband, Kenny Marshall, were in Dallas at the time. Though Marshall was ignoring the calls, her husband felt the need to share it with the family. "Mark Cuban has left several messages trying to reach your mother," Kenny told his son, Kenneth A. Marshall.

The son and father rushed into action and urged Marshall to call Cuban back. At the time, she was planning to visit California for her mother-in-law’s 82nd birthday party. Her plans changed, as Cuban needed someone to fix an internal disaster within the Mavericks organization.

A seven-month investigation later found that multiple employees were complicit in engaging in sexual harassment while working for the Mavericks for nearly two decades. Cuban, who was never punished by the NBA, knew the situation was dire and needed help.

He knew just who to call and never hesitated, he said.

“[Cynt] was the only person I interviewed. I knew we had the right person right away,” Cuban said. “She was smart, savvy and had the experience we needed. It was obvious she had a big heart.”

When Cuban finally connected with Marshall, it was a no-brainer for her to join the Mavericks, and she got to work right away. She called her family shortly after, telling them that she had to prepare a plan to save the Mavericks and, in due time, prepare for a press conference introducing her as the CEO of the team.

To ready the plan, she conducted interviews with employees and ultimately found who needed to be held accountable, Marshall said.

“It was a somber atmosphere. Most of the people here just wanted a career in sports. But you had some people that, let me tell you, needed to go,” she said. “But for the people who experienced some of these things, I think it was just a relief to finally be heard.”

Some conversations with employees afterward lasted hours, detailing accounts of their challenging tenures with the Mavericks. By the time she was introduced internally to employees, she was met with applause and relief from the audience.

This wasn’t her first storm, and she knew what she had to do. During a three-hour flight to Fresno, Calif., to visit her mother-in-law, she created the 100-day plan, which helped Cuban save his team.

“I had to take in what I heard in those few hours, take what [Mark] told me, and then rely on my experience to create a blueprint,” she said. “I laid out different ideas and it ended up being about 200 initiatives.”

The plan was built around the acronym “CRAFTS,” which stood for character, respect, authenticity, fairness, teamwork and safety.

More specifically, Marshall wanted to implement pillars, such as “Model-Zero tolerance,” in which the organization would immediately begin an investigation if allegations of misconduct occurred; bring in more women to lead the organization; and update performance reviews, the code of conduct, employee handbook and more.

By the end of her first three years with the Mavericks, the team’s 14-person executive team had transformed. Half of them were women, while half were people of color. Today, much of that still rings true: Half of the executive leadership team is made up of women, and 75% are people of color.

Though Marshall isn’t one to take credit for the 350% increase in women in executive leadership at the team and a 224% increase of women and people of color at vice president or above positions since the 2017-18 season, others, such as Mavericks CFO Matt Wojciechowski, will be the first to say that without Marshall, the organization wouldn’t be where it is today.

“I had already been here two years prior to her arriving here, but she really brought so much to us,” he said. “The diversity, equity and inclusion piece, she put that structure around us. That’s the legacy she’s leaving behind.”

The day of the press conference was nothing new for Marshall. Given her prior positions across corporate America, the spotlight and cameras were another normal Tuesday. But employees knew she was going to bring change.

“I came from a job that didn’t feel so welcoming, so I remember when I first met her. She hugged me and I felt warm and fuzzy,” said Becca Genecov, Mavs senior social media manager. “It felt like we were going to be OK. She made me feel safe.”

A force of nature

Marshall can be seen roaming t he halls of the Mavericks’ home, the American Airlines Center. Oftentimes, it’s hard to get her to sit down because of the traffic that fluctuates her way on any given day. One moment, it’s the Mavericks’ “Kid Reporter” Sarai Stokes-Mitchell, pulling her aside for an interview, or fans in the Platinum Club yelling out to grab her attention.

“I love you, Cynt!” one fan screams from a table inside the club.

“And I love you too,” Marshall says back, with a broad smile.

Ask anyone and they will tell you, Marshall is a hugger. Even Cuban, a usually jovial figure within the organization, was taken aback by how affectionate Marshall is to the people around her.

“If you love hugs, you would get your share and then some,” Cuban said. “I think the biggest lesson [I learned from her] is to sustain kindness, even when things aren’t going well. Being nice is always the better path.”

Her cheerful attitude pays off often within the business, said Darlise Harrison, a Mavericks Foundation board member and wife of the team’s general manager. The two met at All-Star Weekend in Chicago in 2020, where Harrison immediately gravitated to her over their shared experience as Black women within corporate jobs.

“There’s different levels to her excellence. She’s fair and makes you feel important, valued and listens to you,” Harrison said. “That type of attitude can really take you far because people strive to be like her. Even my mother loves her.”

When she’s not catching the hearts of fans, Marshall is also known to be a saleswoman, with a big portion of her credit going to her attitude, Cuban said.

“There is no part of the organization she didn’t touch, because she brought a unique kindness. She has strong organizational skills and is willing to put in the time to help people develop their own skills,” he said. “But what flies under the radar is the fact she loves to close sales and she is good at it. She really is a force of nature.”

Within the organization, Marshall is known as “The Deal Closer,” according to Brittanie Boyd, the Mavericks’ senior vice president of corporate partnerships.

In recent years, the Mavericks have sponsored the WNBA Dallas Wings in a multiyear agreement in which its GEMS (Girls Empowered by Mavericks) program logo is featured on all home and away jerseys, and began the Mavs Take ACTION program, which works with the Dallas community to support local nonprofits, schools and more.

The “Cynt Effect” can be seen across the team’s year-end numbers, too. Revenue from sponsorships has jumped 89%, and foundation grants are also up 251% since the 2017-18 season.

Though she’s helped on other deals, the Wings deal is one she’s still most proud of to this day, Marshall said. “We wanted to invest in the team from a sponsorship standpoint, obviously. But it couldn’t just be financial,” she said. “It’s beautiful because we don’t own them, and I hope it shows people you can still support other teams.”

But any Mavericks deal has, in some way, been made possible because of Marshall, Boyd said.

“I guarantee you, if we get the CEO of a company or anything in a room for 15 minutes, it’s a done deal. She’s a natural,” Boyd said. “With corporate sponsorships, we’re talking to everyone in the industry, like tech and finance. But with her business acumen, she can talk across any vertical and understand their business. She just gets it.”

Her effect is also seen on the diversity of the Mavericks’ suppliers. More minority-, women-, disabled- and veteran-owned businesses work with the team than ever — a 28% average increase in the number of such businesses it works with since the 2017-18 season. The team says it spends a total of $8 million per season with these businesses.

Marshall has even helped charm the Mavericks’ new ownership group, Las Vegas Sands. Two weeks after Dumont and Miriam Adelson purchased a majority stake in the team from Cuban in December 2023, Dumont caught a virus that prevented him from seeing the American Airlines Center in-person for at least two weeks.

It forced Mark Boekenheide, senior vice president of global real estate development at Las Vegas Sands, to take his own tour of the facility, eventually bumping into Marshall, who helped him understand what he had gotten himself into.

“She really is the face of the whole house. I don’t see her on a day-to-day basis; maybe only every couple of weeks. But she’s become a good friend,” he said. “I’ve only had exposure to the Mavericks, but seeing the amount of things that go through her is amazing. The corporate involvement is outstanding, but it’s her commitment to the Dallas community which has been great to see.”

The Three B’s

For some, retirement is when it’s time to settle down and watch sunsets while sipping mimosas on a beach. Not the case for Marshall.

No one within the organization truly believes she’s gone for good. Especially those who know her best.

“C’mon man, retirement?” said son Kenneth while slightly rolling his eyes and grinning. “I know she’s not going to be retired for long. Her first retirement lasted two months. I hope she at least gives herself five months to unwind and relax. But it’ll be fun to see her do this for a third time.”

True to her nature, Marshall’s retirement will be short-lived. She still plans on taking a vacation for Christmas, when she hopes to spend time with her family and friends. But after that, it’s back to work.

Two years ago, Marshall released her memoir “You’ve Been Chosen: Thriving Through the Unexpected,” but never had the chance to go on a full-fledged book tour due to her busy schedule with the Mavericks.

With her taking a backseat role as a consultant in 2025, and then preparing for a full-time exit a year after, a book tour is likely around the corner. She hopes to start planning it in January 2025.

It’s all built into her post-Mavs life plan, which she’s referring to as “books, boards and better.” First, she wants to write at least two more books, one on her leadership philosophy and another on motherhood.

“My mom gave me a math book and a Bible, so that’s what I want to call it — ‘A Math Book and a Bible,’” she said. “But I want to write about all the things she’s taught me that will hopefully transition into what I’ve learned in motherhood. She’s an exceptional woman that had such a tough journey. So I want to talk about that.”

If writing books wasn’t enough, she’s also ready to help more companies and their boards. She serves on the boards of banking app Chime, Yahoo, BGSF Staffing and Jeld-Wen.

“I just like bringing in my corporate knowledge to help these companies and their community,” Marshall said. “Who knows; maybe I’ll add one or two, drop another. We’ll see.”

But what she’s most excited about is the last “B,” which stands for “better.” It’s an idea to make the world a better place, specifically for children who are either homeless or within the foster care system.

Marshall would know better than anyone about the system. She and her husband have adopted four children from the foster care system, two boys and two girls. In her memoir, she wrote that she tried to have children, but ultimately couldn’t as she endured four separate second-trimester miscarriages, one of which nearly killed her.

At her highest ambition, she could see herself as the president of a college. But it’s all in due time, she said.

“Whether it’s education, or working with people who are focused on permanence and stability for our children, foster care, adoption — I want to be a part of that,” she said. “I want to wake up every morning knowing that a child’s life is significantly better because of something that I did the day before. They won’t know I did it. I will know. The Lord will know. That’s where I get my joy from.”

Marshall entered the Mavericks organization with one goal: Leave it better than she found it. Finally, after over half a decade, she’s satisfied with where she’s leaving it.

She’ll still be around at times, roaming the halls with fans trying to get her attention, and she’s certainly not going to stop rooting for the Mavericks from her seats in the lower bowl any time soon.

She only hopes her successor will share the same passion she did in making not only the team better, but each person’s life better, she said.

“Don’t try to fix this, because it’s not broken. In fact, it is far from broken. But take it to the next level. Enjoy the fact that you don’t have to come in and fix anything,” she said. “Have fun taking it to the next level. Listen to these people. Learn from these people. Love these people. Treat them fairly and show them how much you appreciate what they are doing for this industry. That’s what I would do.”