On August 3, the Dallas Mavericks basketball team posted an image of Naji Marshall standing beneath a Breezewood Court street sign in Franklin Park, with the text, “Naji signs his extension in his hometown of Greenbelt, Md.”
Marshall was in Greenbelt preparing for a mental health awareness event when the Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri called to offer him a three-year, $52.5 million contract extension that could keep him with the team through the 2029-30 season, according to The New York Times/The Athletic.
The Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) graduate proved himself a valuable player for the Mavericks this past season, when he averaged 15.2 points on 51 percent shooting to go along with 4.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists over 74 games. Marshall has been playing for the team since 2024, after spending four years with the New Orleans Pelicans.
In an interview with Babcock Hoops in 2020, Marshall described what it was like playing basketball as a child. “I feel like growing up with the youth and grassroots basketball there and to be able to experience both of those areas was unbelievable. It’s made me the player that I am today,” he said.
Marshall has been nearly unstoppable on the court since his days playing for ERHS back in 2015-16. Marshall began playing in his junior year, and quickly became a standout player. In a 2016 interview with The Prince George’s Sentinel, ERHS head coach Brendan O’Connell said Marshall was a key contributor to the team’s 24-3 record and its Prince George’s County and 4A MPSSAA state championships that season.
“Eventually you’ll be watching him on TV somewhere,” O’Connell said in 2016.
One of his previous teammates at ERHS, Jaden Faulkner, also spoke with The Sentinel about sharing the court with Marshall.
“Naji is like one of my brothers,” Faulkner said. “We work hard together. He got me better, for real.”
Marshall went on to attend Xavier University and played for the XU Musketeers for three seasons. He averaged 16.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and four assists on 44.5 percent shooting as a senior. He helped lead the team to an NCAA tournament appearance and Big East regular season title game in 2018 and was a finalist for the 2020 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award.
While speaking with Babcock Hoops, Marshall shared that during his time playing for the Musketeers, he “developed a work ethic that had gotten [him] to this point.”
Today, Marshall has become a fan favorite in Dallas. Early in the season, questions arose surrounding his shooting after he struggled from the three-point range for the first several games. However, he became one of the Mavericks’ more reliable players and finished the season with career highs in scoring, assists, steals, minutes and starts.
Marshall returned to Greenbelt earlier this month to host the second annual Mental Health Awareness Pro Classic Basketball Game Hoops and Healing, which took place August 2 at Prince George’s County Community College. The game allowed young DMV basketball players to compete and play alongside Marshall. After receiving the news of the contract extension earlier in the day, Marshall made the event free to the public and refunded early ticket buyers.
Charlotte Ormond is a University of Maryland student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism interning with the Greenbelt News Review.
