April 25, 1993 – Everything came to an end in the Detroit Pistons’ 1992-93 regular season finale. Their 10-year playoff streak, Ron Rothstein’s one-year stand as head coach, Dennis Rodman’s time as a Piston. But Rodman wasn’t the only longtime Piston seeing his time with the team come to a close that day. That afternoon, Mark Aguirre—perhaps carrying a little more weight than he did upon his arrival in 1989—also turned in his final day of work with the club. Sporting jersey No. 24, contrary to the No. 23 he’d worn every other year with the Pistons, Aguirre capped his career in Detroit with an end-of-half fadeaway buzzer beater, his seventh point of the half.
After averaging a career-low 9.9 points per game in 1992-93, Aguirre experienced a modest renaissance as a member of the Los Angeles Clippers the following season. Playing 22 minutes a night off the bench, he averaged 10.6 points per game and was ninth in the NBA in 3-point percentage (.398). Alas, the Clippers chose to waive Aguirre in January to make room on the roster for John Williams, the latter of whom had spent the previous four months at a weight reduction center.
“John coming back is in the very near future, and his minutes are going to come from Mark Aguirre’s minutes,” Clipper Coach Bob Weiss said, per the Los Angeles Times. “When I brought Mark here, I told him it was to play. I didn’t think he was getting enough minutes to be as happy as he wanted to be, as things were. It was only going to get worse. I didn’t want Mark as the 10th, 11th or 12th man. It’s better for Mark to be able to go somewhere else and better for us.”
Aguirre, who’d already stated he’d be retiring following the 1993-94 season, was caught off guard by his release.
“I couldn’t understand the reason,” Aguirre said. “They talked to me today. They felt like there weren’t going to be enough minutes (for him and Williams). They made a business decision. I’d just gotten comfortable with the guys.”
Nevertheless, over 18,000 career points, three all-star appearances, and two championships all add up to heck of an NBA basketball career.
Pistons-Nets Box Score: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199304250DET.html
Special thanks to Hardwood and Hoops
Article on Aguirre’s abridged Clippers career: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-01-sp-17581-story.html
7 Comments
How this guy is not in the BASKETBALL Hall of Fame is quite an injustice.
Just look at his BASKETBALL resume and tell me how players like Pau Gasol, Chris Mullins, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Ralph Sampson or Manu Ginobli are and he is not.
1-1978 McDonald's All American.
2-2 time College POY.
3-1980 USA Olympian
4-1981 No.1 pick in NBA Draft.
5-multiple NBA All Star with the Dallas Mavericks.
6-Big Time scorer with Dallas, left as their all time leading scorer.
7-2 time NBA champion with Detroit Pistons.
8-20 point career NBA scorer .
One of the most explosive small forwards in NBA history.
This was the most disappointing season, even worse than 1991-92…. You can see the disgust on Aguirre's face with the disdain of this entire season… you get rid of Salley yet you have Polynice; you solved the guard situation by getting Danny Young and then getting rid of Woolridge for Alvin Robertson… So you had a lineup of Thomas, Dumars, Laimbeer, Polynice, Rodman with Aguirre, Robertson, no John Salley, Danny Young, and Robertson…. So imagine if Salley were there, just keep #22 and you could put a line-up of: Thomas, Dumars, Laimbeer, Salley, and Aguirre and come off the bench with Robertson, Rodman, Polynice, Danny Young, and you had Mills…. So this team, if coached right and kept in tact could have done a lot of good things this season had the GM kept Salley and if they made the right coaching move but Ron Roethstein?… Why him?…It's stupid — that right there made sure they wouldn't win because even Rodman said all 1991-92 he was trying to get Daly's job…but during this time, I wanted a guy like Fratello or Hubie Brown to coach the Pistons after Daly — both guys knew the strategy of the game and had the respect of the core guys.
Guess What?: Guess who was still playing? Mahorn, Salley was in Miami and Edwards was with the Lakers contributing coming off the bench still hitting fade-away jumpers and rebounding…. So those guys were still in the league…. Why do you think Daly had Mahorn in New Jersey?… Showing you it wasn't Daly's move to get rid of 'Horn.
Just imagine the Pistons keeping their guys while adding Woolridge/Walker in 1991-92 and keeping guys while getting rid of Woolridge for Robertson (as they did) and Danny Young giving more depth at the guard/small forward spot…and a better hire for coaching so the Pistons from 1991-93 showed us how to destroy a dynasty which could have lasted…because what are you preserving? You are losing anyway with bad personnel/chemistry so why not keep the chemistry together and win?
Other Franchises: You see how the Bulls kept things together after Jordan in 1993 knowing they were going to have to move Grant, Scott Williams, King…then Pippen wanted out and they would have made a solid/great deal for Pippen but Jordan wanted back and wanted Pippen so what did they do? In 1993 they got Ron Harper, Pete Myers to make up for the two guard spot and Steve Kerr to back up Armstrong and Wennington/Longley to help out Cartwright who would retire.
What did Boston do? Got rid of Ainge had Reggie Lewis, Brian Shaw, Dee Brown, and Kevin Gamble to help out with Bird, McHale and Parish…then they had Ed Pickney to either back up McHale and Klien to back up both Parish/McHale and drafted Rick Fox who did a solid job as a rookie, in fact, Fox was better as a rookie in Boston because he held things down at the small forward position…then they got Sherman Douglas and had Bagley to help out the point guard spots and Dino Radja….
The Lakers did a great job after Magic…. They still had Worthy in 1992-93 who went out well and A.C. Green whom they replaced after 1991-92…. They had Sedale Threatt, Peeler, still had Elden Campbell, Tony Smith, and Divac for 1992-93 and had Byron Scott still with Sam Perkins, whom they traded for 1992-93 to Seattle for Doug Cristie/Benoit Benjamin…then they did well in the draft for 1993-94 getting Van Exel and George Lynch…. Remember that team made the playoffs in a tough Western Conference for 1992-93 but Detroit couldn't in the East and that Lakers' team should have beaten Phoenix.
This is why later on you saw teams like the Spurs keep things together in the early 2000's into 2014…. So you can learn from the mistakes of other franchises. It's just sad to see how the Pistons broke up what could have been a long lasting success even after their core guys got older into retirement. I mean you do realize the Pistons could have had Sam Cassell and/or Nick Van Exel in the 1993 draft along with Alan Houston. Just sad.
Very very interesting
It's the Clippers, they're dummies for a reason.
Imagine releasing a former multi-time all-star for a fata** Hot Plate Williams.
Aguirre needs to be in the Hall if Ralp Sampson is, Chris Mullin, MIng Yao, MItch Richmond, Tracey McGrady….
Another interesting fact:Mark Aguirre and former Mavs teammate Rolando Blackman retired the same year (1994) from the NBA…..
When Aguirre went to the Pistons his scoring average dipped a lot. He was a 25-30 point scorer with Mavs and became 15 point scorer with Pistons. He won two rings but he was maybe the 4th best player on the team. At the time, i thought he was under utilized.