In the summer of 1986, the Cleveland Cavaliers used a second-round pick on a point guard from Georgia Tech named Mark Price. He was listed at 6-foot-0, not particularly athletic by NBA standards, and had been passed over by 24 other teams. What those 24 teams missed was a player who would become one of the most accurate and efficient point guards in NBA history — a four-time All-Star who led Cleveland to its most successful decade before LeBron James arrived and rewrote the franchise's entire story.
The Best Point Guard in Cavaliers History
Mark Price played in Cleveland from 1986 to 1995, and during his peak years from 1988 to 1993 he was one of the five best point guards in the NBA. He averaged between 15 and 19 points per game across that stretch while running the offense for a Cavaliers team that competed for 50-plus wins every season. His combination of pull-up shooting, accurate passing, and court vision made him the ideal orchestrator for a roster that also featured Larry Nance, Brad Daugherty, and Hot Rod Williams — a group good enough to challenge Michael Jordan's Bulls in the Eastern Conference playoffs multiple times.
The Greatest Free Throw Shooter in Cavaliers History
Mark Price is one of the greatest free throw shooters in NBA history. He shot 90.4% from the line for his career — a figure that ranked among the top five all-time when he retired and remains elite today. In individual seasons he shot 94.4% (1992-93), 93.2% (1988-89), and 91.9% (1991-92). His ability to convert pressure free throws in close games was a defining characteristic of Cleveland's late-game execution, and his presence at the line was effectively automatic. Price also shot 40.2% from three-point range for his career at a time when the three-point line was still being integrated into offensive systems.
Four All-Star Appearances
Price made the NBA All-Star Game in 1989, 1992, 1993, and 1994 — a testament to the consistency of his excellence over a half-decade. His 1992-93 season, in which he averaged 18.2 points and 7.6 assists while shooting 44.7% from three and 93.2% from the line, was arguably the best individual season by a Cavaliers point guard until recent eras. The Cavaliers won 54 games that year and lost to Michael Jordan's Bulls in the second round — as they had done in 1988, 1989, 1991, and 1992. Price and Cleveland kept competing and Jordan kept winning, which says more about Jordan than it does about Price.
Why the Cavaliers Retired #25
The Cleveland Cavaliers retired Mark Price's #25 because of what he built in Cleveland across nine seasons — not just individually, but culturally. He was the player who made the Cavaliers a team that basketball fans outside of Ohio paid attention to, who competed in a conference featuring Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Isiah Thomas and held his own against all of them. His career was limited by injuries after 1993, but the record he left — four All-Star selections, franchise-best free throw percentage, and leadership of the most successful pre-LeBron era in Cavaliers history — made the decision to retire his number one of the easiest the franchise ever made.
