Mark Price, Guard NOVEMBER 20, 1985
These days Mark Price sounds more like Donald Trump than a former
All-America guard at Georgia Tech and four-time NBA All-Star. A
partner in a real estate investment group, he's immersed in a
world of zoning laws and escrow accounts, with a large-scale
project under way in greater Atlanta, where he's lived since
arriving at Tech, in 1982. "This area is really growing, and my
partners and I are trying to be a part of that," says Price, who
in '98 retired as the NBA's career leader in free throw
percentage (90.4).
He is still active on a court, but now his game is tennis. "I
have a little quickness left," says Price, who's a regular
player, with his wife, Laura, in an Atlanta adult league.
"Competing against other neighborhoods is a big part of our
life."
After his playing career ended, Price kept his hand in basketball
by coaching at the high school and college levels. In 1998-99 he
filled in for a family friend, Duluth (Ga.) High coach Joe
Marelle, who was recovering from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The
following two seasons Price was an assistant at Georgia Tech, and
then he became coach at Whitfield Academy in Atlanta. After
leading the small Christian high school to a 27-5 record and the
final eight of the state Class A tournament, Price left coaching
for the challenge of starting a real estate business. "If the
right opportunity came along in the NBA, I'd jump at it," he says
of possibly returning to coaching in the future. "I enjoy helping
young players develop the fundamentals of shooting and passing."
Price learned those fundamentals from his father, Denny, an NBA
and college coach with three sons who became players: Mark, 39;
Matt, 37, who was a guard at Appalachian State; and Brent, 34,
who played guard at South Carolina and Oklahoma and spent 10
years in the NBA. Denny died of a heart attack in 2000 while
playing a pickup game with Mark and Brent. A native of Enid,
Okla., Mark was the high school player of the year in Oklahoma
his senior year. At Tech, the 6-foot, 160-pound point guard
emerged as a player and coach wrapped into one.
Price was a second-round pick in the 1986 NBA draft, by the
Dallas Mavericks, who immediately traded his rights to the
Cleveland Cavaliers. He spent nine years in Cleveland and then
one season each with Washington, Golden State and Orlando and
finished with 10,989 points, a 15.2 scoring average and 6.7
assists per game.
Throughout his career Price was respected as much for his
Christian principles as for his play at the point. In 722 career
NBA games he was ejected only twice. As Michael Jordan said after
Price was sent to the locker room for protesting an offensive
foul in a 1990 loss to the Chicago Bulls, "Mark doesn't use curse
words."
That's still the case, says Price, the father of four (Brittany,
13, Caroline, 10, Hudson, 9, and Josh, 4). "I take my position as
a role model for kids seriously," he says, "and I've always tried
to live a life that would honor God." --Farrell Evans
COLOR PHOTO: CRAIG MOLENHOUSE (COVER) SOUTH PARKED: Price has been Atlanta-based since '82.
COLOR PHOTO: GREG FOSTER [See caption above]
A standout at the point in college and the NBA, Price coached
briefly after retiring and is now a real estate developer.