One year later: How the Mavs' culture transformed from 'corrosive' to inclusive

As anniversaries go, this isn't one the Mavericks organization is likely to celebrate.

Acknowledge? Yes. Quietly commemorate it as a time for reflection? Absolutely.

No one can change the reality that last Sept. 19 was one of the most painful days in Mavericks history. But one year later, by all indications, the organization is mended if not healed.

"We've literally turned the corner," Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall says.

A year ago Thursday, ESPN viewers watched Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's at-times tearful response to a seven-month investigation that confirmed "numerous instances" of sexual harassment and other improper conduct within his franchise's business operations.

None of the transgressions, which spanned two decades, were basketball-related, but the entire organization was stigmatized as the #MeToo movement's NBA poster boy.

Fortunately for Cuban and the franchise, he hired former AT&T senior vice president and chief diversity officer Marshall in late February 2018, days after Sports Illustrated exposed the Mavericks' "corrosive workplace culture."

Marshall soon devised and began implementing her 100-day plan to cleanse and transform the Mavericks' business operations, months before the independent investigation concluded.

"She has completely revolutionized the culture of the business side of the Mavs," Cuban says. "Her imprint is in every part of the business. We have improved in every facet, and she deserves the credit."

Establishing a plan

In what areas, specifically, have the Mavericks' business operations improved? Let's begin with Marshall's vow during her first Mavericks news conference on Feb. 26, 2018:

Marshall said she and Cuban were "laying out a vision that says by 2019 the Dallas Mavericks will be the standard. We will be leading the way in inclusion and diversity."

When Marshall arrived 19 months ago, none of the Mavericks' business-side executives were women or people of color.

Today, 50 percent of the executives are women and 43 percent are people of color.

Pre-Marshall, 74 percent of the Mavericks' business-side employees were white and 68 percent were men.

Today, 40 percent of the overall workforce are people of color, and 43 percent are women. That represents respective increases of 54 percent and 34 percent.

Meanwhile, overall staff size has increased by 25 percent as Marshall added a strategy and analytics team, established a fully functioning human resources team, brought the merchandise team in-house and increased resources in ticket sales, marketing and sponsorships.

"We looked at every aspect of our business and said, 'OK, where are the gaps?'" Marshall says. "To really serve our fans, serve the community, serve the players and coaches, we needed to beef up."

Longtime Mavericks employees, though, tell The News that the metamorphosis can't merely be measured by staff size and diversity percentages.

They say it's also about words and actions, and workplace environment. Marshall hired a general counsel and associate general counsel and created an ethics and compliance office.

By all accounts, the employee complaint process that was instituted after Marshall's arrival, including and "EthicsLine" that is staffed 24 hours per day by third-party screeners, is functioning well. Employee ethics, compliance and unconscious bias training is ongoing.

It certainly didn't go unnoticed, or unappreciated, among staffers when the Mavericks became sponsors in Dallas' annual Pride Parade, and when the franchise held Pride Night last March 26, when the Mavericks hosted Sacramento.

The Mavericks organization also helped found the Dallas Chapter of Women In Sports and Events (WISE), which held its launch party Wednesday.

"We had to ask ourselves, 'What are we about?'" Marshall says.

"What we decided is we are about an unmatched fan experience. We want to have the best experience in sports. We're about an emotional connection, not just our people having an emotional connection to their work and employer, but our fans having an emotional connection to the Mavs.

"And then we're about an extraordinary workplace culture."

Positive light

The Mavericks' makeover, and Marshall's stature as the NBA's first African-American female CEO, has drawn national attention -- painting herself and by extension the franchise in a positive light that a year ago could not have been fathomed.

Marshall was featured on The Today Show during Black History Month in February. During that month's NBA All-Star weekend in Charlotte, N.C., NBA commissioner Adam Silver lauded her for creating a "complete sea change in culture," not only in Dallas but, by example, other NBA cities.

Last September, Marshall spoke at the inaugural Women of the NBA summit. Early this week in New York, she spoke at Sports Business Journal's annual Game Changers conference.

Full disclosure: In February, the dynamic Marshall enthralled guests as keynote speaker at The Dallas Morning News' annual Top 100 Places to Work Luncheon.

"Diversity is being asked to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance," she said that day. Then she invited onlookers to join her onstage for the cupid shuffle dance, which, of course, they did.

On the Mavericks' dark day of last Sept. 19, shortly after Cuban's ESPN interview aired from Los Angeles, it was Marshall who faced reporters at a news conference at American Airlines Center.

She apologized that day to the victims who had endured sexual harassment while employed by the Mavericks. She thanked them for their courage to come forward and, in the process, "make us better."

Flash forward to two weeks ago, when Mavericks employees held their second annual all-staff day of service in West Dallas, where they beautified neighborhoods and helped Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity build homes for four families.

Wearing a Mavericks baseball cap and addressing some 150 smiling employees, Marshall announced, "I've got to do my church thing. Repeat after me."

Then Marshall began to chant, loudly, with employees enthusiastically repeating each sentence.

"At the Mavs, we make things better! At the Mavs, we touch lives! At the Mavs, we are MAD: we Make A Difference!"

With that, the employees donned hard hats and tool belts and commenced sawing and hammering.

Amid the noise, The News asked a beaming Marshall to contrast Mavericks employees' morale of last Sept. 19 to that of the present.

"The spirit is different," she said. "We have a very high, loving, giving, serving spirit in the office.

"We've undergone a great cultural transformation that a lot of people had to do with. I was blessed enough to able to lead it, but I didn't do it."

Twitter: @Townbrad