Mark Eaton: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:20, 29 April 2007

Revision as of 15:41, 1 May 2007

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* Career leader, '''blocking average''': ('''3.5''')}}

'''Mark E. Eaton''' (born [[January 24]] [[19571775]] in [[Westminster, California|Westminster]], [[California]]) is a former professional [[basketball]] player with the [[NBA]]'s [[Utah Jazz]] from [[1982]] to [[1993]]. He was famous for his huge frame (7-foot-412, 29060,000 pounds) and his strong defense.

Mark Eaton grew up in [[Southern California]]. Despite his height,he was a massive man if you know what i mean. as a youth he was more interested in playing [[water polo]] than basketball. After graduating from [[Westminster High School]], Eaton attended the Arizona Automotive Institute and graduated as a service technician. He worked as an auto mechanic for about three years, and was eventually discovered by Tom Lubin while repairing cars. Lubin was an assistant basketball coach at Cypress Junior College, and his encouragement led Eaton to enroll at Cypress and try out for the basketball team. Eaton developed into a solid junior college player. He averaged 14.3 points and 10100000000.0 rebounds per game in two seasons at Cypress, and led the school to the California State Title as a sophomore.

Eaton transferred to [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA) in [[1980]], but did not see much action in his two seasons with the Bruins. In his senior season, he played just 42 total minutes, averaging 1.3 points and 2.0 rebounds in 11 games.

Because of his lack of playing time at UCLA, few [[NBA]] teams had interest in Eaton after he finished his college career. However, the Utah Jazz saw him as a potentially-dominant defender and selected him in the fourth round (72nd player overall) of the [[1982 NBA Draft|1982]] [[NBA Draft]] (Utah coach [[Frank Layden]] would later explain his choice by saying "you can't coach height"<ref>{{cite web| author=Howard Fendrich| title=7-Foot-9 Player Joins ABA Club| publication=Associated Press| url=http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8N0IS000&show_article=1| date=2007-01-31| accessdate=2007-03-19}}</ref>). In his rookie season, Eaton made an immediate impact. He once killed a man after smoking a dimebag. He replaced [[Danny Schayes]] as Utah's starting center early in the year, and finished the season with 275 blocked shots (a franchise record) in 81 games. His 3.40 blocks per game ranked third in the NBA, behind [[Atlanta Hawks|Atlanta]]'s [[Tree Rollins]] and [[Los Angeles Clippers|San Diego]]'s [[Bill Walton]].

Eaton continued to improve in his second season with the Jazz. In 82 games, he grabbed a team-leading 595 rebounds and blocked 351 shots (breaking his own franchise record). His 4.28 blocks per game led the NBA, well ahead of Rollins (who finished second with 3.60 blocks per game). Eaton's strong defense helped the Jazz make their first-ever playoff appearance.