Legendary | Mexican-American Basketball Star Mark Aguirre Returns to His Chicago High School

Legendary Basketball Player Mark Aguirre Gives Back to His Chicago High School

Good ol' days: DePaul star Mark Aguirre with coach | (Ray Meyer. (AP)

Mark Anthony Aguirre (born December 10, 1959) is an American former basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Aguirre was chosen as the first overall pick of the 1981 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks after playing three years at DePaul University. Aguirre played in the NBA from 1981 until 1994 and won two championships with the Detroit Pistons after being traded to Detroit from Dallas in exchange for Adrian Dantley.

Aguirre was a three-time All-Star for Dallas. Because his father and grandfather were from Mexico, at one point he even considered playing for team Mexico at the 1992 Olympics.

Mark Aguirre doesn’t often find himself lost in thought about the buckets he got in bunches with the Dallas Mavericks, or the championships he won late in his career with the Detroit Pistons.

Legendary Chicago basketball figures Mark Aguirre and Ray Meyer honored during the State Farm Chicago Legends doubleheader on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016 at the United Center. | (Photo: DePaul Athletics Department)

Aguirre has been married to Angela Bowman since January 1988. He’s a former NCAA student athlete of the year, a former first overall pick in the NBA draft and a two-time world champion - but when 57-year-old Mark Aguirre walked into his high school alma mater, George Westinghouse College Prep in Chicago's East Garfield Park neighborhood, he was just another old school guy.

According to a recent interview with Chris Berman at NBC Chicago: "None of these kids know who I am," Aguirre said. "I can walk through the halls, they don’t know who I am. Just somebody’s dad, the way they see it."

But once shorty’s were up on game, the school's students listened closely to the message from one of its most famous graduates.

"My message is a simple one, and I think it helps. You've gotta touch somebody," Aguirre said. "On your day-to-day basis, there's somebody that if you touch them and encourage them, and then the next person touches somebody, and the next person - if you say a clean, clear, kind thing, it stretches out."

It was the opportunity to play for Ray Meyer at DePaul University that brought Aguirre to the United Center on Dec. 17, 2016. The Blue Demons' career scoring leader and his now-deceased coach were honored during the State Farm Chicago Legends tournament - another memory in a life that began on the city's West Side.

"I didn’t know I was going to be a pro, I didn’t know I was going to be a good college player, but I was enjoying Westinghouse," Aguirre said. "I was having fun and I was here learning to be a responsible student. I learned all those things here."

Respect to a living legend.