Michael Price (born September 11, 1948) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. He played for three seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA) for the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers. Price played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

and was selected in the first round of the

1970 NBA draft The 1970 NBA draft was the 24th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on March 23, 1970, before the 1970–71 season. In this draft, 17 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball player ...

by the New York Knicks. He is the older brother of fellow NBA player Jim Price.

Early life

Born in

Russellville, Kentucky Russellville is a home rule-class city in Logan County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 6,960 at the time of the 2010 census. History Local historian Alex C. Finley has claimed the area was fir ...

, Mike Price attended

Arsenal Technical High School Arsenal Technical High School, commonly referred to as Tech or Arsenal Tech, is a public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, which is run by the Indianapolis Public Schools district. The school is located on a , multiple buildin ...

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

where he played for Coach Jack Bradford, graduating in 1966. Price was the leading scorer of Arsenal's state runner-up team. Playing with his younger brother

Jim Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim ...

, Price helped lead

to the State Finals in 1966. The Titans finished the season with a 25-4 record. He was named as a 1966 Indiana All-Star and earned All-Sectional and All-Regional honors.

College career

Price played collegiately for Illinois Fighting Illinois from 1967 to 1970. Playing for coach Harv Schmidt, Price averaged 8.5 points and 5.1 rebounds as a sophomore as Illinois finished 11-13 in 1967-1968. As a junior in 1968-1969, Price averaged 12.4 points and 6.8 rebounds, as Illinois finished 19-5. Illinois finished 15-9 in Price's senior year. He averaged 15.0 points and 9.2 rebounds. Overall, Price averaged 12.0 points and 7.0 rebounds in 70 career games for the Illini.

Professional career

Price was the 17th overall pick by the New York Knicks in the

. Price played for the Knicks from 1970 to 1971. He spent time in the

United States Army Reserve The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces. Since July 2020 ...

during the 1971 NBA offseason and returned a month before the season commenced. Price was waived by the Knicks on November 23, 1971. He then played for the Indiana Pacers of the American Basketball Association (ABA) during the 1971–72 season. Price returned to the NBA during the 1972–73 season to play for the Philadelphia 76ers when the team lost an NBA record 73 of 82 games. He averaged 3.2 points and 1.3 rebounds during his career in the NBA and ABA.

Honors

* University of Illinois Athlete of the Year (1970) * Price received the George Huff Award for Proficiency in Scholarship and Athletics. * Price was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.

References

External links

1948 births Living people American men's basketball players Arsenal Technical High School alumni Basketball players from Kentucky Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players Indiana Pacers players New York Knicks draft picks New York Knicks players People from Russellville, Kentucky Philadelphia 76ers players Shooting guards {{1940s-US-basketball-bio-stub