The friendly bloggers (and their fans) at the Cleveland sports-based Waiting For Next Year have taken upon the task of creating a Mark Price-themed t-shirt (h/t Sporting News).
Price, the current Atlanta Hawks shooting coach, may still be right for Cleveland Cavaliers fans, but that’s far from the case for Wizards/Bullets fans.
A reminder of how the Cavs fleeced former Bullets GM, John Nash (from this May ‘08 post):
Price, then 31, didn’t even make it to the beginning of the season before getting injured which left Nash scrambling to acquire Robert “The Original Pac Man” Pack from the Denver Nuggets for Doug “Philly’s Finest” Overton and Don “Oft-injured ‘gym rat’ who tested positive for steroids in 2000″ MacLean, just days before opening night. Mark Price played only 7 games in that 95-96 season…..I also blame Nash’s “Curse O’ Les Boulez” inducing trade for Webber only playing 15 games that year. But I digress…
Back to that 12th pick in 96 … Cleveland used it to select overpaid bust, Vitaly Potapenko. Who was taken 13th? None other than the 2008 MVP, Kobe Bryant. The likes of Peja Stojakovic (14), Steve Nash (15), Jermaine O’Neal (17), and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (20) followed. I just love hindsight….and coincidentally, Nash was forced to resign in April of ‘96.
I remember the lore of Mark Price, I remember it well. Excited I was as a young 15-year old, only be disappointed by one of the many marks on the wall of my NBA fandom jail cell indicating another failed franchise season due to injury. When the Bullets finally got their act together, putting together seven wins in a row from late-March to early-April, they lost their last four of the season, finishing a mere three games behind the Miami Heat for the last playoff spot in the East.
Price was damaged good before he even arrived in DC, but that’s just out luck, isn’t it?
Thanks for nothing Mark Price.
“The price is wrong, bitch.” -Happy Gilmore
Other reads from Truth About It:
3 comments for this post
This reminds me…where’s former Oklahoma great Hollis Price these days?
Mark Price had a pretty indistinguished run downunder in Australia with the South Dragons too… he coached the team to about 3 wins from memory and then was ousted after a player-led revolt.
I’m sure he has fond memories of Cleveland though!
[...] exploring their own history books remembering Robert Pack. Then I was linked to another post on TruthAboutIt that also goes into detail on it. I found my answer [...]
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