Coach Mack’s Thunderous Presence

If you talk to Marvin Mack long enough, you will come away with a treasure trove of stories. That includes the time during his playing days at Langston University when he carried a .38 special with him for safety when he traveled to Mississippi.

Or even how a referee once threateningly showed him the pistol that was in his own pocket after Mack questioned a call during a game.

While those tales highlight what it was like in the ’60s and ’70s for a young, Black basketball player on the HBCU circuit, it’s the stories from his 40-year high school coaching career that tend to pop up the most. Whether they pertain to basketball or life in general, Mack has collected anecdotes and quotes that can be dropped into almost any conversation.

But these days, instead of seeing the game from the sidelines, Mack has another vantage point.

Back in the bowels of Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center, out of sight of the 18,000 fans, Mack sits perched on a tall chair—a name tag emblazoned with “Coach Mack” on his lapel, a walkie-talkie on his hip and a smile on his face. 

He is in charge of the corridor leading to the locker rooms when the Oklahoma City Thunder have a game. Mack is one of the first faces players and coaches see when they arrive on game day.

“This has been my position from day one,” Mack says. “I had an option to go to the floor or back here. I decided I wanted to be back here. So here I am still today.”

When Mack says day one, he means even before there was an Oklahoma City Thunder franchise. In 2005, when the New Orleans Hornets took up residence in the city for two years, he was on the job.

“Before [Hurricane] Katrina hit, I was here. I came down here for an NCAA playoff game, and the coach here was Leodies Robinson, the Millwood football coach. A great legend that’s gone on to glory now,” Mack said. “But I saw where we were hosting the NCAA men, and I asked him after Sunday school if I needed to get a ticket. He said, ‘Coach, I got something better than that for you.’ He said they asked him to put a 20-man team together, ‘and your name popped in my head first.’”

The next day, Mack arrived at what was then the Ford Center to officially apply for a security position.

“I beat everybody here. I was at the front door when they came in and filled the paperwork out,” Mack says. “The lady who was our boss saw my worth, ethics and how I handled things. She said, ‘Would you like to work concerts?’ I said, ‘By all means.’ So, I started working concerts and then Katrina hits. I was already in place. I've been here ever since and enjoying every day of it, every second of it, because of the camaraderie of teams and friends all over the country I’ve made.”

From Kevin Durant to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Mack has gotten to every player who’s worn a Thunder uniform in the franchise’s 17-year history in OKC. He speaks of the respect he has for General Manager Sam Presti and his co-workers around the building.

Mack is a walking, talking history book for the team, and may be its most influential ambassador.

Nearly every player, coach, staff member and executive who slowly saunters into the arena hours before game time has some type of interaction with Mack. From a casual fist bump to a deep hug, he goes out of his way to make sure they feel welcomed.

For the ones he has seen many times through the years, Mack often pulls them to the side and inquires about family members, their jobs and their personal lives.

“I was taught from early childhood, treat everybody nice, and then nice will override everything,” Mack states. “And I’ve watched players come, I’ve watched them go. They’re now head coaches and assistant coaches in the NBA. But I watched them when they put their suits on and played out there on the NBA floor. So, it’s just treating everybody nice — and I guess they don’t get it everywhere, so therefore it’s just a big bond, like a fraternity, and I’m in that fraternity with these guys.”

"So many, young or old, they all remember coach. I'm not bragging. It's just that love recognizes love. We want to be loved. That's where I am." –Coach Marvin Mack

That mindset of just being nice and treating everyone with respect was prevalent in Mack’s household as a young kid growing up in Guthrie. It also became a foundation for him while coaching for four decades (1980-2020) at Douglass High School and Taft Middle School.

“The final result (of coaching) was to take a ball of clay and you mold it and shape it into the way that you should be,” Mack says. “Not just athleticism, but being a productive citizen in the community, because a lot of the kids were fatherless. So, I’m now pawpaw to many, many grandkids.”

While Mack may not have the same type of influence on the professional athletes that he encounters these days, he still offers words of encouragement and advice when he can, regardless of uniform.

Players such as Kendrick Perkins, Zach Randolph, Draymond Green, Patrick Beverly, Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant stand out as ones he has a deep affinity for.

“Those are my boys. And when they see me it’s, ‘Yes sir, no sir, coach, how are you doing today?’ And they give me the biggest hugs that you’ve probably seen and witnessed,” Mack says. “So many, young or old, they all remember coach. I’m not bragging. It’s just that love recognizes love. We want to be loved. That’s where I am.”