Andrew Gaze: Mark, welcome to Australia, it’s (Melbourne) a beautiful city.

Mark Price: It is a beautiful city and obviously I’m glad to be here. I’m excited to be here at the game tonight, and get a chance to see what this NBL is all about and obviously everyone’s excited about the play-offs and it should be a fun night.

AG: It is an exciting time for Australian basketball. How did you come up as a potential candidate for the South Dragons coaching role?

MP: Adrian Newall, who’s scouting for the South Dragons, was over in the States and a friend who knew a friend put us together. We had lunch, talked about it and things kind of progressed from there to the point where here I am checking Melbourne out. I’ve been really impressed with the South Dragons organisation to this point. There’s only so much you can do without seeing it with your eyes so I wanted to come over and see a game and get a lay of the land.

AG: There’s no questioning your playing credentials, but have you done much coaching? Since you retired what’s been your journey?

MP: I’ve coached at high school level, I was an assistant for a season at Georgia Tech and recently I’ve been out of coaching for a couple of years. I have four kids and to this point I just didn’t feel that the timing was right. I’ve had opportunities to coach but none of them were the right situation, who knows, this might be the right opportunity?

AG: Do you see this more as a stepping-stone for your coaching career, is there an ulterior motive to coaching the South Dragons?

MP: No there’s really no ulterior motive, although I’m sure there’s a lot of people who might think that’s the case. I’m a guy that maybe looks at things a little differently. It’s an opportunity to come see another part of the world, it might be a great adventure for my family and to continue involvement with the game I love, you never know.

Mark Doran: Mark welcome to Australia and Andrew and I are excited that you’ve come to Melbourne to consider coaching in our league – how close are you to making a decision?

MP: First of all the decision will be made fairly soon. I want to be fair to Mark Cowan and the South Dragons’ organization because I know that they want to get moving forward on this situation, and this is basically the last step for me in making my decision. After I’m here I’m going to go back and discuss things with my wife and family and we’ll make the decision together.

AG: I notice you’ve got your brother Brent Price here, who I know from when I turned around the Washington franchise very temporarily in the early nineties (laughs). I absolutely transformed that program and he was part of that. Has Brent come along as a package deal, like your assistant? That would be just spoils of riches for the South Dragons if they got the package.

MP: It’s not a package. I brought Brent along because my wife couldn’t come. I like to have another set of eyes and ears to help see things. If I were at a point where I decided I want to come, I’d talk to Brent really strongly about coming with me.

AG: Let’s go back to your playing days. What are some of your fondest memories of playing in the NBA because you were absolutely at the top echelon of the NBA?

MP: Well I think really the crowning achievement was when I was picked first team All-NBA. There weren’t a whole lot of people who thought I was going to play NBA after college. To have a twelve-year career and get to play on four All-Star teams, on the second Dream Team – if I could have written a script it wouldn’t have ended up that way. I was fortunate to have a great career. I wasn’t able to win a championship unfortunately, I played in the same era as some guy named Jordan who was with Chicago and it was tough for anybody to win something with him in the league. I played on a great team with the Cavaliers – guys like Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance – it was a fun ride.

AG: Mark we really thank you for your time and in all honesty there would be nothing greater for Australian basketball than to have a man of your calibre coming along and sharing your experiences with the NBL, whether it be for a short period of time – you are 100% welcome in this country.

MP: It’s always good to see you Andrew, and although I missed you by a year I know Brent has fond tales of Andrew Gaze playing for the Washington Bullets.