[Mark Price is a pretty generic name. But there was nothing generic about the Cavs’ Mark Price in his prime during the early 1990s. He was such a classy NBA point guard. As Isiah Thomas recently commented, “Mark Price killed me.” He certainly wasn’t alone.
The brief article that follows, from the 1990-91 Street & Smith’s Pro Basketball magazine, explains more about Price and his background. At times, the article reads like a PR puff piece, but there truly was nothing bad to write about him. My only quibble with the piece, from the great Fran Blinebury, is it doesn’t mention Price’s superb ability to move without the ball. That was my favorite part of his game. Nevertheless, enjoy!]
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What Mark Price remembers most are all the doubts. The doubts about his size, the doubts about his speed, the doubts about the ability of the tiny waterbug to survive in a game where height is usually—and often wrongly—associated with might.
At 6 feet, Price is definitely one of the smallest players in stature in the NBA. But try telling that to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who know that he’s one of the biggest reasons the franchise has climbed back to the level of being a playoff contender in recent seasons.
There are no doubts in Cleveland about Price’s toughness, about his possessing the talent to match up with the best of them, about his being the sparkplug that they rely on to jumpstart the attack. Price overcame the doubts with a work ethic that he acquired from his father, Dennis, a former assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns and now the head coach at Philips University in Enid, Oklahoma.
It was his father who taught Price the value of standing on the foul line and practicing over and over again to make free throws. They are not the prettiest or most-exciting part of the game, but making those free throws is often the sign of a winner. And Mark Price has always been a winner, even when he was dragging around those nagging doubts behind him like a ball and chain.
At every level of the game, he has run into the doubts. Perhaps people make instant judgments based on his boy-next-door looks rather than waiting to see his game. The doubts were there in high school at Enid, where he didn’t become a starter until his junior year. Then, even though he averaged more than 31 points a game as a senior, he wasn’t given the respect that he deserved from the college scouts.
Too small, some said. Not quick enough, others claimed. Won’t hold up over the long haul down in the trenches, said the rest. But Coach Bobby Cremins took one look and didn’t have any doubts when he lured Price to Georgia Tech.
“I thought he was outstanding,” says Cremins. “He was a complete sleeper in high school. I was shocked to learn how available he was. After seeing him, I was amazed we had a shot at this kid. I figured the other big schools had to be sleeping. He had a lot of guts. And, God, what an incredible shooter.”
Price arrived at Georgia Tech at the same time the Atlantic Coast Conference implemented the three-point basket from a distance of 17 feet, 9 inches, and he quickly left no doubt about his ability to capitalize on it. Price led the ACC in scoring as a freshman, finished with a 17.5 scoring average, and was named to the All-ACC team three times.
Yet there were only more doubts from the NBA, where he was chosen on the second round by the Dallas Mavericks and immediately traded to the Cavs on the afternoon of the draft. But again, Price’s doggedness, not to mention that considerably underrated ability, made him a hit. He now ranks consistently among the league leaders each year in assists and three-point field goal percentage. And he can still nail those free throws with the best of them.
“Mark has been nothing but successful for us,” says Cleveland coach Lenny Wilkens. “He’s our leader on the floor, he keeps us going, he’s so very competitive.”
In fact, Price’s competitiveness eventually forced the Cavs to trade away another talented point guard, who they had drafted on the first round. A guy named Kevin Johnson, who has become an all-star for the Phoenix Suns.
“It was a difficult situation for me, sitting behind Mark and not playing, but I couldn’t fault the Cavaliers for it,” says Johnson. “I kept trying to push and push and get that starting job, but Mark never let down an inch. I always thought that as soon as he slipped up, I’d have the job. But the thing is, he never slipped up.”
Price had earned the starting job during his second season in the NBA and, despite the few doubters that remained, quickly earned a multi-million-dollar contract from the Cavs, who appreciated what they had. “Truthfully, I didn’t think he could be as good as he’s turned out to be in the NBA, admits Cremins. “I thought because he was such a great shooter, he would be an excellent role player. But I didn’t think he would become such a complete player. “
Indeed, Price has become the player who makes all the other Cavs better. His value can’t be measured strictly in numbers. His intelligence gets the ball in the hands of the right people at the right time. His quickness allows him to push the ball upcourt to start the fastbreak, and his tenacity is an inspiration to those around him. His leadership provides an energy jolt for everyone else in the lineup.
“He started out a little slowly in his first season,” says Wilkens. “At first, teams tried to bump him and rough him up. They thought they might throw him off his game. But Mark has shown that he’s a lot tougher than a lot of people ever thought.”
Actually, along with Detroit’s Isiah Thomas, Utah’s John Stockton, and Phoenix’s Johnson, Price has helped put the speedy little man back in vogue in the NBA. He has helped turn the tide in the league from the days when every team thought they had to have a 6-feet-9 point guard like Magic Johnson to compete at the highest levels.
“I think I’ve broken ground,” says Price humbly. “It’s not as hard for little guys to break through and get respect in the game anymore. I think the biggest doubts were that I was too small, too slow, too short.
“I had to deal with a lot of perceptions about me at the time. But it feels good when you go beyond perceptions and exceed the expectations that others had about you. When I was coming up out of high school and in college, people weren’t convinced there was a place for guys my size in the game.”
But, of course, those people have never taken into account, the size of his heart and the amount of desire that Price had to succeed. They didn’t know how Dennis Price raised Mark to be in constant pursuit of improvement and perfection. They didn’t know about all the days when Mark would just stand on the foul line shooting hundreds, or even thousands, of free throws just to get that very basic aspect of the game down pat.
There’s nothing glamorous about making free throws. There’s nothing especially attractive about a little 6-foot guard who can’t jump up to the rafters. Unless, that is, your interest lies only in winning. In which case, Mark Price can do the job. Without a doubt.
From Way Downtown 