J-Speaks: Passing of Jazz Legendary Gentle Giant

 

The Utah Jazz are once again in the championship conversation behind their remarkable season, just like they were in the 1990s led by their Hall of Fame dynamic duo. Those Jazz teams also were also led by their starting center then, who suddenly passed away 16 days ago.

On May 29 Mark Eaton, 7-foot-4 center, a two-time Kia Defensive Player of the Year winner during his 11-year career (1982-1994) with the Utah Jazz passed away, the Jazz said in a statement. He was 64 years old.

According to the Jazz organization, Salt Lake City, UT Police said that Eaton was found on the road before 8:30 p.m. local time by a someone passing by on the road on May 28 in Summit County, UT, according to that county’s Sheriff’s Office. The Summit County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Jazz said Eaton was taken to a hospital, where he would later pass away. The Sheriff’s Office also said, according to the Jazz that “there is no reason to believe a vehicle was involved in the incident.”

Eaton’s passing came days after being in Chicago, IL taking part in the celebration for his friend Joe West, who just broke Major League Baseball’s (MLB) on the night of May 25 working his 5,376^th career regular-season contest.

“The Utah Jazz are profoundly saddened at the unexpected passing of Mark Eaton, who was an enduring figure in our franchise history and had a significant impact in the community after his basketball career,” the Jazz said in a statement about the Inglewood, CA native in late May.

“His presence continued around the organization as a friend and ambassador while giving back as a businessman and volunteer to his adopted hometown in Utah. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Teri and their extended family. Mark will be greatly missed by all of us with the Jazz.”

Before their current team’s 126-110 win in Game 5 in the First-Round versus the Memphis Grizzlies, there was a moment of silence in honor of Eaton, who spent his entire 11-year career with the Jazz.  

“He was so impressive,” longtime NBA broadcaster Mike Inglis, now the radio voice of the Miami Heat said on May 29. “ I used to call him the human condominium complex. He was something else on defense, let me tell you.”

During NBA on TNT’s “Tip-Off” Show back on May 29, co-host and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said how he and Eaton had been texting back and forth during the week before Eaton’s passing because he and Barkley have a mutual friend in the aforementioned West, whose nickname is Cowboy. In a couple of those text messages were photos of Eaton with Paul Krause and Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Chicago Bears Jim McMahon and of former NBA referee Joey Crawford.

“It just broke my heart,” Barkley said when he learned of the passing of Eaton before the telecast. “…You got Gheorghe Muresan. You got Dikembe Mutombo, but that guy right there [Eaton] is the ultimate gentle giant.”

Fellow Hall of Famer and co-host Shaquille O’Neal, who got the news about Eaton’s passing from his mother Lucille also said on the show about the couple of times he played against Eaton in the early part of his 19-year career with the Orlando Magic that Eaton was the first player he played against that made him feel small.

Throughout O’Neal’s basketball journey from elementary, middle, high school, AAU, college and even in the NBA, he was the tall person where everyone looked up against him.

Even when he went to see Eaton when the Spurs played against the Jazz once in in the late 1980s in their former gym the HemisFair Arena he never realized how tall Eaton was until he played against him.

“And he was tough,” O’Neal said of Eaton. “I used to give him that old patient elbow  sandwich that I give the guys. He never complained. Never said anything. So, my condolences to goes out to his family. I hear nothing but great things about him.”

Eaton’s NBA career though happened almost by accident. Back in 1977, the former UCLA Bruin was working as an auto mechanic after graduating with an automotive service technician’s degree from the Arizona Automotive Institute in Glendale, AZ when the Cypress College men’s basketball coach was very persuasive in convincing Eaton to enroll at the institution. Following his freshmen season for the Chargers From there, Eaton was drafted by the Phoenix Suns with the 107^th pick in the 1979 NBA Draft. Eaton decided to return to school and transferred to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he would play for the late legendary head coach John Wooden and then sparingly for then head coach Larry Brown in 1980-81.

Eaton initially disappointed in how he played as a collegian, got advice from the late Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlin who encouraged him to place his focus at the defensive end from protecting the basket, becoming a consistent rebounder, and making solid passes to quicker guards to score.

It was that advice Eaton got from Chamberlin as the turning point of his basketball career.

Due to a lack of playing time, few NBA teams had interest in drafting Eaton. So, he paid for two tryout camps to play basketball overseas, but only got a $15,000 offer to play in Israel and another $25,000 offer to play in Monte Carlo.

The Jazz who finished in last place the season prior saw Eaton’s potential as a dominant defender him as a drafted again No. 72 overall in the 1982 NBA Draft the Jazz, where he teamed up with the Hall of Fame duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone. His last NBA game was in 1993 when the Jazz lost in the First-Round at the then Seattle Supersonics. Back issues ended Eaton’s career and he retired in September 1994.

While he averaged six points in his 11 NBA seasons, with his scoring average of 5.6 points in 1984-85 season being his career-best, he averaged for his career 7.9 rebounds and 3.5 blocks, the best in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Eaton led the NBA in block shots per game in the seasons of 1983-84 at 4.3, 1984-85, 1986-87 at 4.1, and 1987-88 at 3.7.  

Eaton blocked 3,064 shots during his NBA career, behind only Hall of Famers Artis Gilmore (3,178 blocks), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3,189 blocks), Dikembe Mutombo (3,289 blocks), and Hakeem Olajuwon (3,830 blocks). Eaton set the single season record for block shots in 1984-85 season with 456.

Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson once said of Eaton, “You think you so tall whatever, you 7-foot-4, okay. When you go to Mark Eaton, he just a mountain of a man. You’re gonna see.”

“So, you go to Utah and play them and like, “Okay, this dude is big and strong. And so, it was a challenge that I looked forward to every time I played against them.”  

Despite all of his personal accolades, Eaton has often said that he is most proud that he was on a winning team for all but one of his 11 seasons with the Jazz.

“We created a culture that is still part of the team’s identity today,” Eaton, who was in the playoffs every season except his rookie season of 1982-83.

Eaton, whose 11-year career with the Jazz is third most seasons played for the team in their history, behind Malone and Stockton, he like this Hall of Fame teammates could be counted on to play game-in and game-out, playing at one point in his career 338 consecutive games.

Eaton in his 11 seasons won Kia Defensive Player of the Year twice (1984-85 and 1988-89 seasons); was a five-time NBA All-Defensive team selection, making the First-Team three times and was a Second-Team selection twice, and was selected as an All-Star in 1989, playing the NBA’s unofficial mid-season classic with perennial All-Star in Malone and Stockton.

Eaton’s No. 53 jersey was one of the first jerseys retired by the Jazz along with the late great former head coach Frank Layden’s No. 1, Hall of Famer’s Adrian Dantley’s No. 4: the late fellow Hall of Famer “Pistol” Pete Maravich, the late longtime owner Larry H. Miller’s No. 9, the No. 12 and No. 32 jerseys of Malone and Stockton, Jeff Hornacek’s No. 14; former sharp-shooter in teammate Darrell Griffith’s No. 35, and the late Hall of Fame head coach Jerry Sloan’s 1223 representing the amount of wins by Sloan had as Jazz head coach from 1988-2011.

“If there’s such thing as a basketball savior, Mark Eaton was the guy,” Eaton’s teammate for eight seasons (1983-91) and current Jazz color analyst for AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain Thurl Bailey once said. “Mark was always kind of the calvary. He was always the last stand.”

In retirement, Eaton along with being a restaurateur as owner of Tuscany’s and Franck’s in Holladay, UT, author, and motivational speaker, served as mentor to current Jazz All-Star center Rudy Gobert, the winner of the 2020-21 Kia Defensive Player of the Year for the third time in the last four seasons.

Gobert, who averaged 14.3 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks on 67.5 percent shooting in leading the Jazz to the best record in the 2020-21 regular season at 52-20 joined Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo (four), Hall of Famer to be Ben Wallace (four) and Philadelphia 76ers’ Dwight Howard (three) to win Defensive Player of the Year at least three times.

Eaton said that he would occasionally text Gobert and tell him that his “job” is to “guard the entire team.”

“The paint is your house. Don’t let anybody in there,” Eaton once said when he texted Gobert. “I love watching him. He’s so exciting.”

In a statement on his Twitter page @rudygobert27, the “Stifle Tower” said, “To my great mentor and friend @markeaton7ft4, one of the kind and an amazing human being, I’m grateful for your presence in my life over the years. Gonna miss our conversations. But I know you’ll be watching.”

In an interview with NBATV/NBA on TNT’s Allie LaForce, Gobert said that he met Eaton three years ago in the early part of his NBA career and said that he “really enjoyed” conversing with a fellow multi-Defensive Player of the Year winner not just from the personal side of Eaton but his basketball insight.

“He was just an amazing person and when I got the news I was just waking and it definitely hit me pretty hard,” Gobert said of the sudden passing of Eaton.

Current Jazz head coach Quin Snyder echoed those same sentiments saying before his team’s 121-111 win in Game 3 of their First-Round series at the Grizzlies on the aforementioned date of Eaton’s passing May 29, “Mark was someone that was a friend, and I think is emblematic of who he was and his ability to listen.”

“And then to offer counsel and support was something that was really unique, and obviously, we’ll miss him.”

“It was a great ride, but life does have a way of moving on and I must move on with it,” Eaton wrote in column for The Salt Lake City Tribune in which he announced his retirement. “Thank you for letting me be a part of your life and community.”  

Along with being an ambassador for the Jazz, Eaton served upon his retirement as the President and Board Member of the National Basketball Retired Players Association.

While the glory days of being a title contender are here once again for the Utah Jazz led by All-Star Donovan Mitchell, the aforementioned three-time Kia Defensive Player of the Year in Rudy Gobert, and head coach Quin Snyder, it all began with the selection of Mark Eaton in the 1982 NBA Draft, then the selections of Hall of Famers John Stockton and Karl Malone and then the leadership on the sidelines of first the late Frank Layden and then the late Jerry Sloan and the rest is history. But it all began with Eaton, whose passing leaves a whole in the heart of the Salt Lake City, UT community.

In a tweet from the Jazz @utahjazz on May 30, “We are heartbroken by the passing of Utah Jazz legend Mark Eaton.”

“Our thoughts are with his family as we all mourn the loss of a great man, mentor, athlete and staple of the community.”  

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/29/2021 www.nba.com story, “Utah Jazz Legend mark Eaton Dies After Apparent Bicycle Crash;” 5/29/2021 www.espn.com  and The Associated Press story, “Former Utah Jazz Center Mark Eaton Dies After Bicycle Crash At Age 64;” 5/29/2021 1 p.m. TNT “NBA Tip-Off,” presented by Carmax with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal; 5/30/2021 4 a.m. NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Kristen Ledlow, Carlos Boozer, and Ryan Hollins; 5/31/2021 6 p.m. NBATV’s “Playoff Central Live,” with Ro Parrish, Steve Smith, and Isiah Thomas; 6/10/2021 www.cbssports.com story, “Jazz Big Man Rudy Gobert Wins NBA Defensive Player of the Year For Third Time In Career,” by Sam Quinn; www.google.com; https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/blk_career.htmlwww.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/utah/season/2021/seasontype/2; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Utah_Jazz_seasons; and https://en.m.wikpedia.org/wiki/Mark_Eaton.