The legacy of Black excellence in the front office gets a major spotlight as our Women’s History Month coverage continues. While the NBA has seen its share of legends on the court, Cynthia Marshall, more commonly known as Cynt, is the powerhouse who rewrote the playbook for what a CEO looks like in professional sports. Back in February 2018, Marshall became the first Black woman to serve as the CEO of an NBA team, taking the reins of the Dallas Mavericks at a time when the organization reeled from a culture of sexual harassment and domestic violence.

In her first press conference, the world saw exactly who was in charge. Marshall sat next to Mark Cuban and did the impossible: she kept the famously outspoken owner quiet while she commanded the room. Marshall wasn't just there for a title; she was there on a mission to clean up a toxic environment, vowing to make the workplace a model for the rest of the world. For her, this was about more than basketball. "I’m doing this for the sisterhood," she declared, making it clear she was standing up for every woman who had ever been silenced.

Before she was fixing the Mavs, Marshall spent 36 years dominating at AT&T, rising from a recruit in 1981 to the president of North Carolina operations. Her journey wasn't without its hurdles. During UC Berkeley Women’s Empowerment Day in 2015, she revealed that a former boss told her she was "too ethnic" because of her braids and red heels. Marshall initially complied, but eventually realized the power of her own voice, later telling other women to "stand your ground and be your authentic self."

Her resilience was forged long before she hit the corporate world. Marshall grew up in public housing, where at age 11, she witnessed her father shoot a teenager in self-defense. At 15, she watched her mother leave a violent marriage after her father broke Marshall’s nose in a fit of rage. Despite the trauma, her mother’s strength pushed her toward a full scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Even a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis in 2010 couldn't stop her. She told her boss she was "uniquely qualified" to beat it, and by the end of that summer, she was cancer-free. When Cuban finally reached out—texting her while she was coincidentally wearing another team's sweats—she didn't even know who he was. But after a 52-minute phone call, she knew she had to lead.

Since taking the helm, Marshall has transformed the Mavericks' leadership from zero diversity to a team that is 50% women and 47% people of color.