How Mark Cuban Selling the Team Made Mavericks CEO Consider Retirement

The Dallas Mavericks have undergone a lot of changes over the last year. In December 2023, Mark Cuban, the only owner to help bring a championship to the franchise, sold his controlling interest to the Adelson and Dumont families. Cuban’s decision to take a backseat apparently influenced Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall to rethink how she wanted her future to unfold.

65-year-old Marshall followed in her boss’s footsteps and decided to quit her position to focus on other important things in her life. During a conversation with Andscape, Marshall talked about Cuban’s impact on her stint with the Mavs and her plans for the future.

Marshall said, “I love what we’re doing. But I had to really start thinking, is it time for them to have somebody else as a CEO that could take it to the next level?”

The franchise has been Marshall’s priority, but she made her peace with letting someone else take it to the “next level.”

Soon after Cuban’s decision became official, she decided she would also part ways with the franchise. She added, “Mark and I, we talked. I told Patrick [Dumont] when I had my first meeting with him at the end of January of this year, I told him, I said, ‘Did Mark tell you that this is my last season with the team?’”

Marshall recalled that they had a good laugh about how the new owners wouldn’t have bought the team if they knew she was leaving. Although Cuban influenced her decision in 2023, Marshall had thought about what she would do from age 65 to 75.

Cynt Marshall wants to focus on her kids

Marshall revealed during the interview that she had planned the next 10 years of her life, from 65 to 75, a long time ago. She said, “And I have said for a long time that from ages 65 to 75 I want to take those 10 years and run really hard for kids and for education and permanence and stability for our kids.”

However, doing that while being the Mavs CEO was nearly impossible as her job was very “consuming.” So, Marshall thought it’d be in the best interest of her and the franchise’s future if she left now. She said, “All four of my kids are adopted. And I really want to dedicate those years of my life to that.”

Giving more time to his family was also on the agenda for 66-year-old Cuban. He spent 23 years of his life building the Mavericks into one of the biggest teams in the league. So, if the boss could do it, Marshall has reasons to believe she could cheer for the Mavs from a distance too.