Co-existing in North Texas since 2015, the NBA Mavericks and WNBA Wings have voiced mutual admiration, attended one another’s games and occasionally collaborated on community outreach.
Now the franchises are forging a business and philanthropic partnership and, in the process, making pro basketball history.
Beginning with Sunday’s home game against Chicago, Wings jerseys will prominently display across the abdomen a Mavericks-sponsored patch featuring the Girls Empowered by Mavericks logo.
The patch, though, simply is the most visible display of a deeper alliance, including Wings players and coaches joining GEM’s year-round programming efforts, which reach 3,000 North Texas girls annually.
Terms of the multi-year contract won’t be divulged when the formal announcement is made at noon Sunday in Arlington’s College Park Center, but a person with knowledge of the deal said the Mavericks’ investment is in the seven figures.
“It’s a match made in heaven,” Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall told The Dallas Morning News. “It’s going to send the message that we’re all-in with our sister team and they’re all-in with us.”
Five of the WNBA’s 12 franchises are part of joint ownerships with the NBA teams in their respective markets. The other seven, including the Wings, are independently owned.
“I’m unaware of any partnership to this extent, breadth and depth between NBA and WNBA teams that are not a shared ownership situation, to this extent,” Wings president and CEO Greg Bibb said.
“I think it speaks to value that the Mavericks are placing on girls and women and sports — and ensuring that their GEM program, which has already done so much good work and reached so many young females throughout North Texas and beyond, can continue to grow.”
The GEM program was created in 2021 to engage, inspire and empower girls (ages 9-14) with physical activity as a backdrop to their development and success.
Marshall said the program was proposed by then-Mavericks operations manager Becca Brown and Mavs Academy senior coordinator Kelli Robinson, citing their experiences and data showing that girls who remain physically active are more likely to have stronger mental and emotional health.
GEM programs include basketball camps; health and wellness clinics presented by UT Southwestern; financial empowerment courses presented by the TIAA; and workshops that focus on how sports can form leadership skills, inclusion and academic success.
Marshall said the inaugural GEM event had about 30 attendees; the most recent one drew 600. The program had reached an estimated 5,000 girls.
Star guard Arike Ogunbowale and other Wings already had participated in GEM events. Going forward, the Wings organization will be fully integrated into GEM, literally joining forces with the Mavericks to empower girls throughout North Texas.
“I think this is a true ‘one-plus-one equals way more than two’ kind of opportunity for both of us,” Bibb said. “I think for the Mavericks, we provide an avenue to the heart of women’s and girls basketball in the region, which will allow them to take the good work they’re already doing and really extend it in an authentic way.
“And then for us, we’re very active in the community, as well, and to be able to plug into the Mavericks and the GEM program and the infrastructure they have in place will amplify our work through the platform they have as an NBA team.”
The Wings franchise originated 25 years ago in Detroit, moved to Tulsa, Okla. in 2010 and then to Arlington. Marshall became the Mavericks’ CEO in February of 2018 following allegations within the franchise’s business operation of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
Within a year the Mavericks’ business staff reflected increases of 54% in people of color and 34% in women. Marshall says that while pondering ways for the franchise to expand community works, she wondered how the Mavericks and Wings might become more synergized.
“My first sit-down with Cynt was early March 2020,” Bibb said. “That’s when she articulated to me the priority the Mavericks were putting on female empowerment, equity and opportunity.
“Obviously, being the WNBA team in the market, those ideals are literally the fabric of our DNA. So it was exciting. I think we both left that meeting energized and ready to create a formal relationship.”
Days later COVID-19 was declared a world pandemic, all but halting society, including sports. The Mavericks and Wings gradually increased their collaboration, including players and employees of each franchise attending the other’s games.
Less visible was when then-Wings forward Isabelle Harrison worked in the Mavericks basketball operations department under GM Nico Harrison (no relation) and in several departments on the business side, including marketing, player relations and the GEM program.
Another Wing at the time, Moriah Jefferson, also worked extensively within the GEM program.
“Izzy was kind of our trial, if you will,” Marshall said. “I’m hoping that as part of this partnership we’ll take that piece to a whole new level.”
When Dallas’ American Airlines Center hosted the NCAA Women’s Final Four in late March and early April of this year, Marshall and Bibb huddled and renewed discussions of a formal Mavericks-Wings alliance. Talks intensified when Wings season ticket-holder Marshall and Bibb met before the Wings’ May 20 opener.
Sunday’s formal announcement about the partnership and sponsor patch debut coincide with, naturally, GEM serving as presenting sponsor of the 3 p.m. Inspiring Women’s Weekend game against Chicago (and Isabelle Harrison).
At halftime of Friday’s home game, also against Chicago, “Grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee received the Nancy Lieberman Community Woman of Inspiration Award, and Dallas Sports Commission executive director Monica Paul received the Businesswoman of Inspiration Award.
On Sunday, Marshall will receive the Lieberman Trailblazer Woman of Inspiration Award.
That’s a lot of inspiring — of girls and women, especially.
“When you look at what’s happening, women’s sports are really growing,” Marshall said. “People are starting to appreciate even more the competition, not to even mention what it does for girls’ self-esteem.
“Wouldn’t it be great,” she added of GEM’s sponsorship and the Mavs-Wings alliance, “if this inspires some little girl, or some Dallas Wings player, to say ‘You know what? I want to do something in the business of basketball, coach a team or own a team?’ That would be fabulous.
“I’m hoping there’s some kind of spark that we can’t even yet envision.”
Twitter: @Townbrad
Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
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