How Mark Price's Cavs legacy is reaching a new generation in Northeast Ohio

NORTH CANTON — Many kids have told Cavaliers legend Mark Price in recent years they learned about his shooting prowess by playing the NBA 2K video games.

“It's a running joke in my family. As soon as the new year comes out, I'm like, 'Did I make the cut?' Because, you know, I'm getting older, so I'm at some point, 2K's going to weed me out, I'm sure. But so far, I've made the cut,” Price said with a laugh.

A new generation of hoops fans became more familiar with Price this summer because the four-time All-Star point guard hosted five youth basketball skills camps in Ohio, the last of which wrapped up Wednesday at Swish 365 in North Canton.

The success of the camps conducted in North Olmsted, Hilliard, Avon Lake, Medina and Stark County has contributed to Price receiving 16 offers to host future clinics. He plans to return to Northeast Ohio next summer and make the camps an annual tradition.

“It's been really great on a lot of different fronts getting to kind of reconnect with Ohio,” said Price, who lives in Atlanta. “I played here for nine years, obviously. I had a great connection with the fan base and the Cleveland area and the state of Ohio for a long time.”

Former Cavaliers All-Star point guard Mark Price has created a new following with the 'Mark Price For 3 Podcast'

Price, 59, has found another way to touch base with people near and far. He and co-host Aaron Conrad are 40 episodes into a podcast they launched last year, the “Mark Price For 3 Podcast.” Its central themes are basketball instruction, NBA current events and Christian faith.

“I'll be out somewhere and some random person will come up and say, 'Yeah, I listened to your podcast this week,'” Price said. “It's just really cool just to know that you're making an impact. I think people that either followed my career or have crossed paths [with me], it's a way for them to kind of catch up with where I'm at, what I'm doing right now — and then new people.

“A lady I sing in the choir at church with, an elderly lady that's not even a basketball person, she's listening to it and enjoying it, obviously for the faith aspect of it. It's just been interesting to see who listens to it. You never know, but it's continuing to grow slowly. We don't have a million listeners yet or anything like that. That's not even necessarily the goal. It was just kind of, 'Hey, let's just put this out there and see what God wants to do with it.'”

The podcast includes Cavs analysis from Price, who tries to attend a couple of games each year at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, where his retired jersey number hangs in the rafters between those of former teammates Larry Nance Sr. and Brad Daugherty.

Mark Price is confident the Cavs can take the next step after experiencing the NBA playoffs in the 2022-23 season

The Cavs are coming off a 51-31 season and their first playoff appearance in five years. But a 4-1 first-round series loss to the New York Knicks left the franchise and its fans wanting much more.

In Price's nine seasons with the Cavs spanning 1986-95, they made the playoffs seven times, advancing as far as the Eastern Conference Finals in 1992. Those teams were eliminated from the postseason by the Chicago Bulls five times — the first four with Michael Jordan on the court and the last while he pursued baseball.

The point is Price, who has held several coaching jobs since his playing days, knows the differences between the NBA regular season and playoffs.

“With Donovan Mitchell, I think [Cavs fans'] expectations might've been a little high going into the playoffs,” Price said. “They had a good season, but until you've experienced the playoffs — and they have a lot of young players — you just never know how a team's going to react.

“Just getting to the playoffs, even though they lost and it was a little disappointing to everybody, I think that's going to be huge for them moving forward because now they know what it tastes like, they know what they need to do to better and I think the team has tried to address some holes [this offseason]. With gained experience and each player a year older and more experienced, there's no excuses for them to not do better this year.”

LeBron James let everyone know Mark Price is 'beyond underrated' as an NBA legend

After arriving in September through a blockbuster trade with the Utah Jazz, Mitchell flirted with becoming the first Cavs player other than LeBron James to be voted first-team All NBA since Price accomplished the feat in the 1992-93 season. Mitchell was named to the second team, though. When Price received the nod, the others on the first team were Hall of Famers Jordan, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon and Karl Malone.

At 38, James is old enough to have childhood memories of how dominant Price could be in his prime.

In Price's first All-Star season (1988-89), he averaged 18.9 points, 8.4 assists, three rebounds and 1.5 steals and shot on 52.6% from the field, including 44.1% from 3-point range, and 90.1% from the free-throw line. He averaged 16.4 points, 7.2 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals in nine seasons with the Cavs before finishing his playing career with Washington (1995-96), Golden State (1996-97) and Orlando (1997-98).

In a series of tweets last summer, James wrote, “MAN Mark Price was so cold!!!! … BEYOND UNDERRATED!!!!!”

Price appreciated the recognition.

“LeBron was a kid when I was playing and I'm sure followed the Cavs as an Ohio kid in Akron, especially with us playing at [the former] Richfield [Coliseum],” Price said. “LeBron being one of the greatest players to ever play, for him to give me a shout-out like that was really cool.”

Youth basketball camps have provided Cavs great Mark Price with opportunities to form a family business

Josh Price, who helps run his dad's basketball camps, pointed out James isn't the only Northeast Ohio native schooling youngsters about the sharpshooter who donned No. 25 for the Cavs.

“You see kids coming in wearing Steph Curry jerseys talking about all the current players,” Josh Price said, “but we just always appreciate the parents here that are kind of giving them a little history lesson.”

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Mark Price grew up assisting his late father, longtime basketball coach Denny, with hoops camps. Price had done his own camps in the past, stopped for a while amid the pandemic and restarted last summer with two.

Both of his sons, Hudson and Josh, were at the camp in North Canton.

“Getting to be a part of it, getting to spend time with him, it's super special,” Josh Price said. “The love that we've gotten being back in Cleveland, especially for him to come back and get back to the community, it's just been amazing.”

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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavs icon Mark Price bonds with fans through camps, podcast