 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Mark Aguirre" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Mark Anthony Aguirre (/əɡwaɪər/ag-WIRE; born December 10, 1959) is an American former professionalbasketball player in theNational Basketball Association (NBA). Aguirre was chosen as thefirst overall pick of the1981 NBA draft by theDallas Mavericks after playing three years atDePaul University. Aguirre played in the NBA from 1981 until 1994 and won two championships with theDetroit Pistons after being traded to Detroit from Dallas in exchange forAdrian Dantley. Aguirre was a three-timeAll-Star for Dallas. Aguirre was inducted into theCollege Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
Aguirre's mother, Mary, was living inArkansas when she became pregnant with him at the age of sixteen.[1] She moved toChicago, Illinois, to be with her family who helped to raise Aguirre.[1] Aguirre did not meet his father until he was aged six.[1]
Aguirre was raised in Chicago and played basketball at playgrounds on the city'swest side.[2] He began his high school playing career atAustin High School in Chicago.[2] When his coach was fired, Aguirre transferred toGeorge Westinghouse College Prep where he led the team to theChicago Public High School League championship during his senior year.[2]
While playing atDePaul University, Aguirre averaged 24.5 points over three seasons with the Blue Demons under coachRay Meyer. In 1981, Aguirre wasThe Sporting News andHelms Foundation College Player of the Year.[3] He also was theUSBWA College Player of the Year andJames Naismith Award winner in 1980, and a two-time member ofThe Sporting News' All-America first team. As a freshman in 1978–1979, he led the Demons to theFinal Four, where they lost toIndiana State, led by futureBasketball Hall of FamerLarry Bird.
The Chicago native played alongsideTerry Cummings at DePaul, and found himself in the national spotlight during his three years at the university. Aguirre averaged 24.0 points as a freshman in 1978–79, and led the Blue Demons to theNCAA Final Four. Over the next two seasons he scored 26.8 and 23.0 points per game, respectively, and was named College Player of the Year in 1980–81.
Aguirre was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team but was unable to compete due to the1980 Summer Olympics boycott. He did however receive one of 461Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.[4]
Aguirre declared for the NBA draft after his junior year at DePaul. The Dallas Mavericks selected him with the first overall pick in the1981 NBA draft.
Aguirre averaged 20 points per game over the course of his 13-year NBA career. He was selected as the first overall pick by theDallas Mavericks in the1981 NBA draft and remained with the Mavericks until 1989. In his first season Aguirre was limited to 51 games and averaged 18.7 points, second on the team toJay Vincent (21.4 ppg). The Mavericks improved by 13 games in the win column and finished ahead of theUtah Jazz, but were still twenty games behind division-leadingSan Antonio Spurs.
Beginning with the 1982–83 season Aguirre reeled off six straight campaigns in which his average topped 22 points per game. In the first of those seasons he scored 24.4 points per contest, tops on the team and sixth in the league. The Mavericks continued their ascent, bettering their record to 38–44 to finish ahead of Utah and theHouston Rockets in the Midwest Division. During the 1983–84 NBA season Aguirre averaged 29.5 points per game, second in the league to Dantley's 30.6 ppg. He finished the season with 2,330 total points.
Although Aguirre was the Mavericks' main weapon, he was helped by the emergence ofRolando Blackman (22.4 ppg) and the contributions of role playersBrad Davis andPat Cummings. Dallas finished second in the Midwest at 43–39, and the team made its first playoff trip, beating theSeattle SuperSonics in the opening round before losing to theLos Angeles Lakers in the conference semifinals. In each of the next two seasons the Mavericks posted identical 44–38 records. In 1984–85 they made a quick exit from the playoffs, bowing to thePortland Trail Blazers in the first round; in 1985–86 they defeated Utah and then took the Lakers to six games in the conference semifinals. Aguirre averaged 25.7 and 22.6 points for those seasons.
In 1986–87 and 1987–88 he made the All-Star Team and averaged 25.7 and 25.1 points, respectively, during the regular season. The Mavericks won more than 50 games each year. The 1987–88 edition of the franchise went 53–29, beat Houston and theDenver Nuggets in the first two rounds of the postseason, then extended the Lakers to seven games before losing in theWestern Conference Finals. It was the longest postseason run in the Mavs' eight-year history. His 13,930 points as a Maverick rank third in the franchise's history,[5] behindRolando Blackman's 16,643 points andDirk Nowitzki's 31,560.[6]
While Aguirre's time in Dallas was full of high-scoring efforts and playoff visits, the Mavericks were postseason underachievers (their only Western Conference Finals visit was the 1988 loss to the Lakers), and Aguirre had repeated conflicts with coachDick Motta and players like Blackman,Derek Harper andJames Donaldson. Then-team ownerDonald Carter was a huge fan of Aguirre and hoped he would remain in Dallas for his entire career, but eventually conceded that the gulf between Aguirre and the team was unbridgeable.[7] On February 15, 1989, midway through the 1988–89 season, Aguirre was traded to theDetroit Pistons forAdrian Dantley (who was also one of the league's top scorers) and a first round draft pick.
After Aguirre was traded to the team, the Pistons won the NBA title in 1989. Despite not being a lead scoring option like he was in Dallas, Aguirre played a key role in Detroit's championship run, especially in the Eastern Conference Finals against theChicago Bulls, where he led the team in scoring with 25 points in a narrow Game 3 loss[8] and averaged 13.7 points and 4.8 rebounds over the rest of the six-game series. He showed he could blend into a successful team by taking fewer shots, playing hard on defense, and not complaining when his younger teammateDennis Rodman's minutes increased. In the1990 playoffs, which culminated with Detroit repeating as champions with a five-gameNBA Finals win over Portland, Aguirre averaged 11 points a game.
The following postseason, Aguirre scored his highest postseason total as a Piston, with 34 points in a Game 4 win over theBoston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.[9] However, in the following round, the Pistons would be defeated byMichael Jordan and the Bulls, bringing their title defense to a close. Aguirre played two more seasons with the Pistons in an increasingly limited role, due to both Rodman's play and his own age and injury issues.
In 1993, the Pistons released Aguirre. After he cleared waivers, theLos Angeles Clippers signed him for $150,000 for a partial campaign in 1993–94. Through the 1993–94 season, Aguirre had accumulated 18,458 points for a career average of 20.0 points per game. He was waived by the Clippers on February 1, 1994.[10]
Aguirre joinedDePaul University Athletics as Special Assistant to the Athletic Director in October 2023 where he would provide strategic counsel to the Vice President/Director of Athletics while maintaining relationships with DePaul alumni.[11]
Aguirre has been married to Angela Bowman since January 1988.[12] Aguirre, whose father was from Mexico, at one point considered playing for team Mexico at the1992 Olympics, and was offered citizenship in an effort to convince him to do so.[13][14]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| † | Won anNBA championship |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–82 | Dallas | 51 | 20 | 28.8 | .465 | .352 | .680 | 4.9 | 3.2 | .7 | .4 | 18.7 |
| 1982–83 | Dallas | 81 | 75 | 34.4 | .483 | .211 | .728 | 6.3 | 4.1 | 1.0 | .3 | 24.4 |
| 1983–84 | Dallas | 79 | 79 | 36.7 | .524 | .268 | .749 | 5.9 | 4.5 | 1.0 | .3 | 29.5 |
| 1984–85 | Dallas | 80 | 79 | 33.7 | .506 | .318 | .759 | 6.0 | 3.1 | .8 | .3 | 25.7 |
| 1985–86 | Dallas | 74 | 73 | 33.8 | .503 | .286 | .705 | 6.0 | 4.6 | .8 | .2 | 22.6 |
| 1986–87 | Dallas | 80 | 80 | 33.3 | .495 | .353 | .770 | 5.3 | 3.2 | 1.1 | .4 | 25.7 |
| 1987–88 | Dallas | 77 | 77 | 33.9 | .475 | .302 | .770 | 5.6 | 3.6 | .9 | .7 | 25.1 |
| 1988–89 | Dallas | 44 | 44 | 34.8 | .450 | .293 | .730 | 5.3 | 4.3 | .7 | .7 | 21.7 |
| 1988–89† | Detroit | 36 | 32 | 29.7 | .483 | .293 | .738 | 4.2 | 2.5 | .4 | .4 | 15.5 |
| 1989–90† | Detroit | 78 | 40 | 25.7 | .488 | .333 | .756 | 3.9 | 1.9 | .4 | .2 | 14.1 |
| 1990–91 | Detroit | 78 | 13 | 25.7 | .462 | .308 | .757 | 4.8 | 1.8 | .6 | .3 | 14.2 |
| 1991–92 | Detroit | 75 | 12 | 21.1 | .431 | .211 | .687 | 3.1 | 1.7 | .7 | .1 | 11.3 |
| 1992–93 | Detroit | 51 | 15 | 20.7 | .443 | .361 | .767 | 3.0 | 2.1 | .3 | .1 | 9.9 |
| 1993–94 | L.A. Clippers | 39 | 0 | 22.0 | .468 | .398 | .694 | 3.0 | 2.7 | .5 | .2 | 10.6 |
| Career | 923 | 639 | 30.0 | .484 | .312 | .741 | 5.0 | 3.1 | .7 | .3 | 20.0 | |
| All-Star | 3 | 0 | 14.0 | .542 | .400 | .800 | 1.3 | 1.3 | .7 | .3 | 12.0 | |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Dallas | 10 | 10 | 35.0 | .478 | .000 | .772 | 7.6 | 3.2 | .5 | .5 | 22.0 |
| 1985 | Dallas | 4 | 4 | 41.0 | .494 | .500 | .844 | 7.5 | 4.0 | .8 | .0 | 29.0 |
| 1986 | Dallas | 10 | 10 | 34.5 | .491 | .333 | .363 | 7.1 | 5.4 | .9 | .0 | 24.7 |
| 1987 | Dallas | 4 | 4 | 32.5 | .500 | .000 | .767 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | .0 | 21.3 |
| 1988 | Dallas | 17 | 17 | 32.8 | .500 | .382 | .698 | 5.9 | 3.3 | .8 | .5 | 21.6 |
| 1989† | Detroit | 17 | 17 | 27.2 | .489 | .276 | .737 | 4.4 | 1.6 | .5 | .2 | 12.6 |
| 1990† | Detroit | 20 | 3 | 22.0 | .467 | .333 | .750 | 4.6 | 1.4 | .5 | .2 | 11.0 |
| 1991 | Detroit | 15 | 2 | 26.5 | .506 | .364 | .824 | 4.1 | 1.9 | .8 | .1 | 15.6 |
| 1992 | Detroit | 5 | 0 | 22.6 | .333 | .200 | .750 | 1.8 | 2.4 | .4 | .2 | 9.0 |
| Career | 102 | 67 | 29.0 | .485 | .317 | .743 | 5.3 | 2.6 | .7 | .2 | 17.1 | |
DePaul's Mark Aguirre was player-of-the-year and UC Irvine's Kevin Magee (the only other Southlander selected) made it at a forward.
Links to related articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
