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Cynthia Marshall is the right person for the Mavs’ rebuild

After a week that seemingly got worse and worse for the Dallas Mavericks, new CEO Cynthia Marshall held a press conference alongside owner Mark Cuban on Monday to set the record straight: The Dallas Mavericks will be the example for inclusion, workplace safety and employee treatment by 2019.

You heard that right.

Faced with arguably the franchise’s biggest-ever scandal, the former AT&T executive took a firm line from the outset by saying “I want Dallas to be the example of how you recover from this.”

She emphasized a zero-tolerance policy for harassment moving forward and pledged to meet with every Dallas Mavericks’ employee in what she called “my own personal March Madness.”

While her and Cuban offered little details in terms of the pending investigation into the harassment claims involving former beat writer Earl K. Sneed and former CEO Termera Ussery, she did promise the truth about what Cuban and the franchise new “will come out.”

Cuban has appeared to give Marshall complete autonomy over the Mavericks non-basketball operations. While Marshall is still technically the interim CEO, as of March 12, she will take over the position full time.

During the press conference, Marshall offered some harrowing details about her personal life growing up such as the time her father shot a man in the head with a gun in self-defense. The perpetrator was pointing his gun at Marshall at the time her father intervened.

Marshall is also a cancer survivor. The same father who saved her life ended up abandoning her and her family while Marshall needed armed escorts to school.

If Dallas values a steeled resolve and the chops to stare even the bleakest situation in the face with the courage to pronounce it basically already risen from the ashes, Marshall is a perfect fit.

The Mavericks still have the investigation itself to deal with. While that process could take months to complete, with the NBA keeping a close eye on the process, it’s clear Marshall is ready to start the overhaul of Dallas’ corporate culture immediately.

And she appears to be perfect for the job.

I'm Zack Cunningham, a broadcast journalism major from Abilene Christian University's class of 2008. I've lived in Texas for 28 of my 31 years on this Earth and I've followed the Mavericks since 1998. My first memory of them was the 2001 playoffs and being extremely happy when they beat the Jazz, but sad when they lost to the Spurs in five games in the conference semifinals. However, seeing Dirk drop 42 stands out to me, punctuated by his dunk in garbage time. I covered high school sports for the Cleburne Times-Review from 2008-12 before moving into the tech industry. Most recently, in 2015 covered the Mavericks for the Fanatic briefly before moving to work with Mike Fisher at DallasBasketball.com. I am married to my beautiful wife, Jessica, and have been for just over five years now. We live in Carrollton with our dog, Zara, and cat, Drake. I'm looking forward to covering them again this season with the Fanatic!

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