OKLAHOMA CITY – Whether it’s Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, his teammates, a visiting player, a player-turned-media member like Kendrick Perkins or a coach, they all typically pay homage to security guard Marvin Mack, aka Coach Mack, every time they walk by the visiting locker room at Paycom Center.
Whether it’s Thunder, New Orleans Hornets, NCAA tournament or BIG3 basketball games, Mack has had a presence outside the visiting locker room at Paycom Center since 2003. At 75 years old, the Guthrie, Oklahoma, native still takes pride and enjoyment in every basketball game he works and the relationships built along the way.
Players and coaches who pass through Oklahoma City love him back.
“It’s special. You get so caught up in your own world as an NBA player. You get so caught up in all the things that come with being in the NBA. People like ‘Coach Mack,’ we have a bunch of them around the building. They are like a breath of fresh air,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “You walk in all serious, thinking about your game, whenever it is, and he’s happy to be there, happy to hold the door for you, just the simple things in life.
“Over the years, I’ve been able to get closer to him. I’ve met his granddaughter. He is a really great guy. I’m happy he is around. He keeps everything light around here. He is a big part of what we do.”
Said Mack: “I guess everybody knows ‘Coach Mack’ all over the country. It’s not bragging. When you show love to people, people show love back.”
Marvin Mack
Mack was first hired as security at Paycom Center, then called the Ford Center, to work the 2003 NCAA men’s basketball tournament first- and second-round games. The connection for the job came through a friend who was familiar with his resume as a girls’ high school basketball coach and former college basketball player. Initially, he was given a choice between working security on the basketball floor sitting with his back away from the action, or outside the visiting locker room.
The first name tag he was given said “Marvin” – to his disappointment. He asked that it be changed to “Coach Mack” to pay tribute to his coaching and playing background.
“It had Marvin on it. I said, ‘What the heck is this? That is me, but it’s not me,’ ” Mack said. “They said, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘Put Coach Mack on there, thank you very much.’ And we’ve been riding with Coach Mack for many, many moons. And we will continue to ride with Coach Mack.”
Mack said his father, David, along with a brother moved to Oklahoma from Georgia, where their family slave name was McCluskey. They eventually changed it to Mack over time. Mack said there was also a Tuskegee Airman in his family.
He said he was 2 when his father died after being hit by shrapnel while in the military. He was raised primarily by his mother, Opal Beasley Mack, who was a sharecropper and raised eight children in Guthrie, about 40 miles north of Oklahoma City.
“She picked cotton. She made things happen. We never were hungry. We were never dirty,” Mack said.
Mack said his mother was limited to a third-grade education due to her environment, and enforced her children never had grades below a “C.” He said his mother taught him about respect, good manners and being aware of his surroundings. She strongly told her children to stay away from a Ku Klux Klan office that was in Guthrie at that time.
Overcoming racism was part of Mack’s childhood.
“What she was actually doing was preparing us for life,” Mack said. “She was letting us know we got to be above and beyond and better then our opposition. I came up through integration where we had to get our sandwiches from the back doors.”
Mack fell in love with basketball during his youth and believed that through it he could earn a full college scholarship that his mother couldn’t afford to pay for. He was a basketball star from 1965-69 at Guthrie High School and won a state championship in 1968. His basketball talents garnered interest from several colleges in the area in 1969. After being urged by his mother to go there, he moved just 12 miles away to play basketball at Langston University, an historically Black college in Langston, Oklahoma.
“I know she couldn’t put us through college,” Mack said. “So, I had to figure out an avenue to get me through college. And I knew it was academics or sports. So, I did a bit of both. So started playing basketball and just trying to enhance my fundamentals and try to be above and beyond others.”
Marvin Mack
Langston University, formerly known as Colored Agricultural and Normal University, was founded as a land grant college on March 12, 1897. Oklahoma’s only HBCU was named after Civil Rights pioneer John Mercer Langston. Mack played on the freshman team during the 1969-70 season and on the varsity team from 1970-73 for coach Glen Gibson.
Mack was ecstatic about his time at Langston on and off the court and is a proud alumnus.
“It was amazing. I’m so glad that my mother sent me there. I was able to meet people from all walks of life, different nationalities. It was cool. I met my best friend there who was from Nigeria,” Mack said.
Mack said he actually began coaching at 12 years old with Youth Corps, coaching an elementary-aged team and got paid “a little check” for it. He coached as an assistant for Langston basketball for two seasons, but his first full-time basketball head coaching gig was at Taft Middle School in Oklahoma City.
Next up was becoming Douglass High School girls’ varsity basketball coach from 1980-2005. His Trojettes, who won conference championships and competed for state championships, were known for playing tough defense. Many of them earned Division I and other college scholarships.
Two years ago, Mack said more than 200 former players attended a banquet honoring the legacy of Douglass’ girls’ basketball program under him. Those years coaching the team made the nickname Coach Mack respected.
“We kind of took the state by storm,” Mack said. “Never did get the state championship, but we always made it to the state playoff championship games. We were Cinderella at one time. Came up through the bottom. …
“I’m very proud. And not bragging, but I’m proud of the outcome of the kids and society and how they matriculated and became young ladies, fine young ladies of the community.”
Mack was first hired to work security at Paycom Center in 2003 by a friend named Otis Robinson, a former Milwood High School football coach. He also attended Langston and was Mack’s Sunday School teacher.
His first assignment was at the 2003 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. He also worked concerts and other events.
Mack said he was in “hog heaven” when the New Orleans Hornets moved temporarily to Oklahoma City from 2005-07 after Hurricane Katrina. The Hornets had a rookie guard named Chris Paul, now a 12-time NBA All-Star.
The Hornets’ presence allowed Mack to regularly work NBA games for the first time and offer occasional words of wisdom and encouragement when players, coaches and personnel arrived from both teams.
“I would always say, ‘Welcome to Oklahoma City, guys,’ when all the kids were coming in,” Mack said. “Some were more receptive than others, which was OK. But I’m going to still be me. …
“Guest relations to me by Webster Dictionary standards is having a relationship with who? Your guests. Those are my guests. So, treat the guests as if they were coming into your home. I’ve got a good staff, good team down there [Paycom Center].
“And that guest relations education there has gotten me more equipped, because we had to go to training on how to treat people. And I try to do it, and I try to put my little spin to it and make it even the better.”
Marvin Mack
Mack was first noticed by Hornets and visiting players by his unique name tag, his warm greeting to Oklahoma City and words of wisdom and encouragement if you appeared in need of them. He grew close to some players, like Paul and former Hornets center Chris Andersen. Players around the league, national and local media, and coaches showed respect when they saw him, all calling him Coach Mack.
“I’ve got the best of both worlds,” Mack said. “I show love on the [visiting] side of the hallway. I show love even more on the [Thunder] side of the hallway. And all those kids just embrace [me].”
Said Thunder forward Jaylin Williams: “When I first got here, everyone was calling him, ‘Coach.’ I didn’t really know why. The more I come to the arena, the more he is giving me tips about the game.”
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said Mack will “pop me with advice from time to time, and I take note.”
Daigneault said the Thunder take pride in game attendees having “a first-class experience when they are here.”
Mack said opposing players have said he and the other security guards do the best job of making them feel welcome on the road.
“We want this to be a great basketball environment and a great basketball experience for anybody that is here, whether they play for us or not,” Daigneault said. “[Mack] is in the visiting team section there. And I think he’s a small contributor to that in the most subtle ways. He’s a great guy to interact with.
“He treats everybody with respect and dignity. I think everybody in that crew, they help create a great environment to have great fans. We have great fans and they support that in their own way. So, it’s not only him, but he’s a great presence. I love hanging with him.”
Said Mack: “I just get a good relationship with those young men. It’s kind of rewarding to them that someone takes them under their wing.”
The Hornets returned to New Orleans full time in 2007, leaving Oklahoma City without the NBA during the 2007-08 season. However, the big turnout for Hornets games proved to the NBA that Oklahoma City could be successful with a team. In 2008, the Seattle SuperSonics were moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City and were renamed the Thunder.
The Thunder began playing in Oklahoma City during the 2008-09 season, and outside the visiting locker room was Coach Mack.
Mack has been with the Thunder through the first NBA Finals appearances in 2012 with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. After some down years, he saw the Thunder rebuilt with young All-Stars such as Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams leading the team to the 2025 NBA Finals.
Through the years, Mack has seen NBA players like Perkins, a former Thunder center, go from player to media and his kids grow into teenagers.
With 19 NBA seasons under his belt, Mack is a part of the fabric of Thunder basketball. He was in awe of Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics and gained a rapport with former San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.
But of all of Mack’s moments outside the visiting locker room, none brings him more pride than his story with the late Kobe Bryant.
The Los Angeles Lakers legend and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer was an 18-time All-Star, a five-time NBA champion, the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player and was one of the league’s most feared scorers. Bryant retired from the league in 2016 after playing in 1,346 regular-season games. After his last game in Oklahoma City on April 11, 2016, Bryant asked if he could take a picture with Mack.
Coach Mack enthusiastically obliged.
“Man, that was amazing,” Mack said. “Kobe’s last game here had an excited crowd, media everywhere. I’m trying to direct traffic and keeping everything flowing as you see when you come with all the media down there, making sure everything is done proper, decent and in order. And suddenly I heard my name through the crowd down the hall, ‘Coach Mack.’
“I said, ‘Who the heck is this calling my name in all this crowd?’ And someone comes up and said, ‘Coach Mack, Kobe wants to know if he can take a picture with you.’ I thought about it because I’m not supposed to take pictures. And I said, ‘OK, the handbook states […]’ but I said, ‘Sure.’ I’m so glad I did.”
Marvin Mack
So how long does Coach Mack want to continue in his beloved role with 80 years of age approaching?
“When the Good Lord say that’s enough,” he said.
Mack plans to roam the hall outside the visiting locker room at Paycom Center next season and beyond. He said, God willing, he also plans on doing the same job when the new Thunder arena, being constructed across the street from Paycom Center, is expected to open for the 2028-29 season.
“When God says my purpose has been served, I’m done,” he said. “But I love it. I wake up for it. I can’t wait to get down into the arena because I know somebody that is coming that might need a word of encouragement, because everyday life is difficult, especially for young men of color.”
Mack is expected to work security tonight during a watch party at Paycom Center. In NBA Finals Game 6 in Indianapolis (ABC, 8:30 p.m. ET), the Thunder will try to claim their first NBA title since moving to Oklahoma in 2008.
Given his coaching background, Mack did have a coach-like pep talk for the Thunder, who have offered him the opportunity to still be a part of the game.
“Being one game away from winning the whole thing, you just have to stay humble and positive,” Mack told Andscape. “Don’t put it in front of you. Don’t put it behind you. Let it come to you and deal with it all in one. That would be the speech I would give them.
“We don’t look at it as one game away. Go have fun and let’s just bring it closure. That’s the big prize.”
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