In 2020, the NBA was 74.2% black and 16.9% white. It seems every decade, the white NBA player becomes less relevant. Yet one franchise has often kept the dream of mediocre white guys alive: the Dallas Mavericks. In 15 of the last 21 Mavs seasons, there were three or more white players on the 12-man active roster. In more than half of those 15 seasons there were at least four white players, not to mention at least two starting white players. The Mavericks, in the literal sense, do not look like the rest of the league.
It’s tempting to put this down to racism or at least unconscious bias on the part of the Mavericks and their owner, Mark Cuban. But, if anything, the opposite is true. Although the Mavericks have a dubious history of toxic workplace culture when it comes to female employees, Cuban has thrown his support behind Black Lives Matter and has appointed a black CEO (Cynthia Marshall), president (Terdema Ussery), head coaches (Jason Kidd, Quinn Buckner, Jim Cleamons and Avery Johnson) and general manager (Nico Harrison) during his time in Dallas.
And when it comes to the three most prominent white players for the Mavericks during Cuban’s ownership of the team, no one would argue they didn’t deserve their places on the roster. Steve Nash is in the Hall of Fame, Dirk Nowitzki will be there in the near future and Luka Doncic, at this early stage of his career, looks like he will join them (Nash and Nowitzki arrived shortly before Cuban bought the team but played most of their careers in Dallas with him at the helm).
