Mark Eaton

Lore & Background

Eaton was a reserve on his high school basketball team before graduating and working as an auto mechanic. He was discovered by an assistant coach at Cypress College, who persuaded Eaton to enroll at the community college and play basketball. Eaton transferred to play college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, but he was used sparingly. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1982 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz as a long-term project. Eaton helped transform the Jazz from a last-place team into a perennial playoff team. When he retired from playing in 1994, he ranked second in the NBA in career blocks behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Reader's Guide

Mark Edward Eaton was born on January 24, 1957, in Inglewood, California, and grew up in Southern California. His father, Bud, was a diesel mechanic instructor and stood 6 ft tall, while Eaton's mother, Delores, was 6 ft. Despite his height, Eaton was more interested in playing water polo than basketball. As a senior at Westminster High School in Orange County, he stood 6 ft and weighed 175 lb but was uncoordinated, not very muscular, and relegated to a backup role on the basketball team. After graduating from high school in 1975, Eaton attended the Arizona Automotive Institute in Glendale and graduated as an automotive service technician. He returned to Orange County and worked as an auto mechanic, making $20,000 a year, when he was eventually discovered by Tom Lubin while repairing cars in Anaheim in April 1977. Lubin, a chemistry professor, was an assistant basketball coach at Cypress College. Lubin's encouragement led Eaton to enroll at the community college in 1978 and try out for its basketball team. After his freshman year at Cypress, Eaton was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the fifth round of the 1979 NBA draft with the 107th pick. He was eligible to be drafted because he was already four years removed from high school. However, he opted to return to college basketball. Eaton developed into a solid junior college player under head coach Don Johnson. He averaged 14.3 points per game in two seasons at Cypress and led the school to the California junior college title as a sophomore in 1980. Eaton transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1980, but did not see much action in his two seasons with the Bruins. He played sparingly under head coach Larry Brown in 1980–81. In Eaton's senior year in 1981–82, new coach Larry Farmer vowed to give him a shot to start, but heralded freshman Stuart Gray got the nod instead. Eaton played just 41 total minutes that season, averaging 1.3 points and 2.0 rebounds in 11 games. Farmer did not play him at all towards the end of the season and did not allow him to travel with the team on their last road trip to Oregon and Oregon State. At a summer pickup game, Wilt Chamberlain saw his frustration, and encouraged Eaton to focus on protecting the basket, getting rebounds, and passing the ball to quicker guards, rather than trying to compete with smaller, quicker players in scoring.

Did You Know?

• Wilt Chamberlain gave Eaton advice that became the turning point in his basketball career.
• Eaton set an NBA single-game playoff record with 10 blocks on April 26, 1985, which stood until 2026.
• Eaton's 456 blocks in the 1984–85 season shattered the previous NBA single-season record of 393 set by Elmore Smith.