Cavaliers guard Mark Price from a 1992 NBA game. (Photo Courtesy: Sports Spectrum Magazine January/February 1993)
With the Cleveland Cavaliers advancing to the NBA Finals, here is an archived story on Mark Price (who spent the first nine years of his career with the Cavs) from our January/February 1993 issue…
It’s 11:30 Tuesday morning and practice is nearing an end. Sweat drips from every forehead at the Cleveland Cavaliers run the floor in a controlled, full-court scrimmage. As back-up point guard Terrell Brandon breaks for the ball, he slides off a pick and gets tangled up with forward Danny Ferry. The two Cavs exchange a flying elbow and a headlock before teammates can separate the players….
Click HERE to read the remainder of our cover story on Mark Price from our January/February 1993 issue.
Charlotte Hornets guard Coby White, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Coby White is back in familiar territory. Not only is the 26-year-old point guard back in a starting role, he’s also doing it in his home state of North Carolina. After being traded to the Charlotte Hornets last season, White is taking over as the team’s primary point guard following the offseason trade of LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
A native of Wilson, North Carolina, White returns to the state where he holds the all-time high school scoring record (3,573 points) and where the Greenfield High star was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year in both his junior and senior seasons, and selected as a McDonald’s All-American. A consensus five-star recruit, he stayed in state to play for North Carolina, where he was named to the ACC All-Freshman team and was a second-team All-ACC selection.
He then declared for the 2019 NBA Draft, where he was the No. 7 overall pick to the Chicago Bulls. He eventually became a regular starter and averaged a career-high 20.4 points in 2024-25. But with the Bulls battling through another losing season in 2025-26 and White set to be a free agent, Chicago traded him to Charlotte in February.
In 21 games for the Hornets last season, he averaged 15.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists. White felt comfortable enough with the new situation to re-sign with the Hornets over the offseason on a three-year, $74 million contract.
He also told the media that he sees God’s hand in how his career has played out.
“Like everyone knows, spiritually, I’m a believer in Christ, so I think He has a plan,” he said Monday. “If you would’ve told me two years ago that this is where I’d be sitting right now, I wouldn’t believe you.
“But I’m excited. I’m blessed. I’m fortunate. We have a really talented team — a lot of versatile guys and unique players. I’m excited to share the floor, and we brought in some really good vets that I’m excited to learn from. We’ve got a really good team and I’m excited for the opportunity I have. I think it’s on me to take full advantage of it.”
With White in the fold, the Hornets reached the NBA Play-In Tournament last season, winning a game against the Miami Heat before losing to the Orlando Magic. Now, Charlotte is looking to reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season. The chance to lead the Hornets there was a big reason White wanted to re-sign with the team.
“I’m excited to see what this year holds,” White said Monday. “This is a different opportunity. I’m in a unique situation, a unique opportunity, and you know it’s definitely one of the main reasons why I did want to come back here was because I knew it would make me a better player. I knew it would be a challenge for the road ahead, and I knew that in order for me to become the player that I strive to be, that I dream of becoming, I have to take on this challenge.”
He’s fully aware of the expectations, especially given his accolades in high school and college in the state, and knows the franchise and fanbase are going to be looking for him to be a leader. He knows it will be a lot of responsibility and weight on his shoulders.
“I think I’m ready for it at this point in my career, maturity-wise, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually,” he said. “So I’m just excited for the road ahead. I can’t tell you what it’s going to look like, but I know that I’m excited to see (it), just like you are.”
.@CobyWhite mic'd up for the first day of training camp 🎤
In the past, White has acknowledged that he may not have been mature enough early in his career to handle such responsibility. Yet he’s seen how God has brought him through those times to make him the man he is.
“I feel with my journey the first four or five years God may not have thought I was ready, that I needed more maturing, maybe more learning,” White told NBA.com in April 2025. “But that was OK. I just wanted to stay patient and continue to be who I am and contribute to work and to strive to be the player who I try to become each and every day. I always give God all the thanks and all the glory because He kind of put me on this journey and He instilled me with the faith and patience to withstand all the trials and tribulations.”
One of White’s biggest examples of how to live a Godly life came from watching his dad, Donald, who was a factory worker in Goldsboro, N.C., and died of liver cancer in 2017 at age 65.
“I was raised to lead with love, raised to put God first and raised to uplift and spread positivity; that’s kind of how my family is,” White told NBA.com. “I look back at my life, growing up in one of the poorest cities in North Carolina. I look back and think, ‘How did I get here?’ I really don’t have an explanation. And then all I can point to is God and my family growing up, my mom, my dad. My dad got on his hands and knees every single night and prayed out loud to God. I saw that every night. He never missed a night, and growing up when you see that stuff as a kid, you start to take home what your parents are doing.”
His faith is big reason why he launched the Coby White Family Foundation, which provides holistic mental health support and scholarship opportunities for Black and Brown youth and families. It also hosts basketball camps and offers educational resources like tutoring, financial literacy and nutritional education.
The foundation is a family affair and guided by Luke 12:48, which says, “To whom much is given, much will be required.”
The Hornets kick off preseason play on Oct. 6 against the Brooklyn Nets, then begin the regular season Oct. 21, also against the Nets.
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST HOSTED BY JASON ROMANO, FEATURING OSCAR TSHIEBWE
Oscar Tshiebwe is an NBA player with the Houston Rockets. He went undrafted out of Kentucky in 2023 after winning the 2022 Naismith Player of the Year award and being named a first-team All-American in 2022 and second-team All-American in 2023. He led all of college basketball in rebounding in ’22 and ’23.
After signing a two-way deal with the Indiana Pacers and then with the Utah Jazz, he led the G League in rebounding in 2024 and 2025. On April 12 in the NBA, Tshiebwe posted a career-high 29 points and 17 rebounds against the L.A. Lakers. He signed with the Rockets as a free agent on July 24.
Today on the podcast, Oscar Tshiebwe returns to the show to tell us about his NBA Draft experience, how he left money on the table in trusting in God’s plan, celebrating the Lord even though he was undrafted, what it means to have courage in the dark, writing a book, and how he has mastered the art of rebounding.
Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect (left) sings with Christian musician Brandon Lake at the end of one of their tour shows. (Photo via Facebook/@DudePerfect)
Dude Perfect has gained a massive online following for their viral trick-shot videos that started in 2009 when they were college students at Texas A&M. Nearly 20 years later, the group of friends is packing arenas for live shows and has millions of fans across various social media platforms, namely YouTube.
And now more than ever, they’re adamant that their mission goes much further than just entertaining people.
They just wrapped up their Squad Games Tour, which featured immersive arena-floor battle zones, trick-shot challenges, and special guest competitors. They performed for more than 180,000 fans in 22 cities.
They also closed out their shows this summer with songs of praise and worship. Some of the biggest names in Christian music — such as Brandon Lake, Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, Jeremy Camp, Cory Asbury and Chris Brown from Elevation Worship — joined the guys on stage. Dude Perfect’s Tyler Toney even joined in on guitar and vocals, and at least one night led worship by himself.
This new worship element further emphasizes DP’s mission to use the platform they’ve been given — 62.5 million subscribers on YouTube, 19.1 million on TikTok, and 13.1 million on Instagram, for example — to glorify God. “There’s more to Dude Perfect than just having fun,” their website reads. “We’re about giving back, spreading joy, and glorifying Jesus Christ.”
The worship set was in addition to the presentation of the Gospel message at the end of their shows, which they began trying in 2021.
“While all those things (fame and accomplishments) are great and good things can come with them,” Toney told the crowd this summer in Cincinnati, “none of those things in any amount compare to the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.”
It was in 2020 that Toney felt God calling him and the guys — Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones and twins Cory and Coby Cotton along with Toney — to be more intentional about sharing their faith.
“We’ve always tried to bring faith into it,” Hilbert told Sports Spectrum in 2023. “We’ve never really known how, because at the end of the day, it is polarizing and we’ve always tried to figure out a way to say it in the best way to put Christ first. And then Tyler was like, ‘Man, I really feel like Christ has been putting on my heart … to share the Gospel with the [audiences on tour].’ We were like, ‘Man, it sounds awesome.’ I think we were all just nervous, like how it was going to go.”
After their first live tour in 2019 was a hit, they had to cancel the 2020 tour due to the COVID pandemic. Their Fall 2021 tour was the first time a mini-sermon was part of the show. The biggest question was where in the show to do it.
“I didn’t want people to feel like they were tricked into coming to something and then we were going to smack them on the head with the Bible and be like, ‘I got you,'” Toney told Sports Spectrum.
They decided that they would do the show as everyone expected, and then at the end extend an open invitation for people to stick around to hear them share about “what’s most important in our lives and why we feel like we’ve got this platform in the first place.”
The first night, they left the stage to grab a drink of water and reset. They were stunned to see how many people had stuck around.
“I went out there and just blacked out,” Toney said. “I couldn’t even tell you what I said, but obviously the Holy Spirit intervened.”
Toney remembers walking off the stage after sharing the Gospel for the first time. He broke down crying because he was overcome with emotion.
“It was the first time when I felt like God was like, ‘This is what I want you to do with this platform,'” he said. “‘This is why I have given the five of you guys this platform. This is why so many kids look up to you, is to be able to share this with them.'”
Years later, that message is still being shared, now with a worship experience as well.
All five of the members were raised in Christian homes. Toney and Hilbert went to high school together in Prosper, Texas, before heading to Texas A&M. It was there that they met Jones and the Cottons. Their first video was a grainy compilation of the guys making various trick shots into a portable basketball goal.
That video now has nearly 46 million views and helped launch them into online stardom. Now they film the majority of their videos out of a customized 80,000 square foot warehouse in Frisco, Texas, that’s fit with a basketball court, a 45-yard football field, a custom mini-golf course and much more.
Toney now looks back and sees how God’s hand has been over each of the guys, even before they met in college.
“It’s really cool to see this platform is given to us for more than just our own success,” Toney said in “The NEW World’s Highest Basketball Shot” video. “The amount of control that we have over things — over Dude Perfect, over the world, over our circumstances — is very little. But whatever God blesses us with, and whatever successes that we do have, we’re going to continue to point back to Him and give Him the glory for it. And that’s the way that we’re going to continue to look at it as long as Dude Perfect is a thing.”
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST HOSTED BY JASON ROMANO, FEATURING CORI CLOSE
Cori Close is the head coach for the UCLA women’s basketball team. In her 15 seasons at UCLA, she has 358 career wins, back-to-back Final Four appearances, and her first national championship in 2026.
Today on the podcast, Cori Close joins Jason Romano to share about her experience leading UCLA to the women’s national championship, clinging to Christ during this past season, what it means to abide in Jesus, loving her players well, and the Gospel impact she wants to make with the platform she has.
With the Cleveland Cavaliers advancing to the NBA Finals, here is an archived story on Mark Price (who spent the first nine years of his career with the Cavs) from our January/February 1993 issue…
