{"id":262633,"date":"2021-05-30T09:15:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-30T06:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/former-jazz-great-mark-eaton-dies-at-64\/"},"modified":"2021-05-30T09:15:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T06:15:43","slug":"former-jazz-great-mark-eaton-dies-at-64","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/former-jazz-great-mark-eaton-dies-at-64\/","title":{"rendered":"#Former Jazz great Mark Eaton dies at 64"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Former Jazz great Mark Eaton dies at 64<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Mark Eaton, the 7-foot-4 shot-blocking king who twice was the NBA\u2019s defensive player of the year during a career spent entirely with the Utah Jazz, has died. He was 64.<\/p>\n

The team announced his death Saturday.<\/p>\n

Eaton left his home for a bike ride Friday night in Summit County, Utah, and shortly thereafter someone called 911 to report after seeing him lying on a roadway and unconscious. Eaton was taken to a hospital where he later died.<\/p>\n

The team, citing county officials who investigated, said \u201cthere is no reason to believe a vehicle was involved in the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jazz described him in a statement as an \u201cenduring figure in our franchise history\u201d who had a \u201csignificant impact in the community after his basketball career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah coach Quin Snyder said Saturday night before Game<\/a> 3 in Memphis that the team\u2019s thoughts and prayers go out to Eaton\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark was someone that was a friend, and I think a friend who a lot of us, in his relationship with Rudy Gobert I think is emblematic of who he was and his ability to listen,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cAnd then to offer counsel and support was something that was really unique, and obviously we\u2019ll miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The center led the league in blocks per game four times and his average of 5.6 per contest in 1984-85 remains the highest average since the NBA started officially tracking that statistic.<\/p>\n

\"Mark
Mark Eaton shoots over Ralph Sampson during a game in 1983.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eaton\u2019s career blocks average of 3.51 per game is the best in NBA history, and his career happ<\/a>ened almost by accident. He was working as an auto mechanic in 1977 when a community college basketball coach persuaded him to enroll. From there, he went to UCLA, and his stint with the Jazz followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an unusual background,\u201d Eaton said for a story published on the Jazz web site two years ago. \u201cIt\u2019s an unlikely story to be sure. I basically came into the NBA with two years of junior college experience and sat on the bench at UCLA for two years. And Frank Layden gave me a chance and the team was in a space where they could afford to let me make some mistakes out there and get my feet underneath me. It worked out well for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eaton had been, among other things, a restaurateur and motivational speaker in his retirement. In recent years, he served as a mentor to Utah center Rudy Gobert \u2014 the only other player in Jazz history to win the defensive player of the year award.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so impressive,\u201d longtime NBA broadcaster Mike Inglis, now the radio voice of the Miami Heat, said Saturday. \u201cI used to call him the human condominium complex. He was something else on defense, let me tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eaton\u2019s death came days after he was in Chicago to be part of the celebration for his friend Joe West, who broke baseball\u2019s umpiring record by working his 5,376th regular-season game Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

His 11 playing seasons with the Jazz are third most in team history, behind longtime Utah cornerstones Karl Malone and John Stockton. His durability was noteworthy, with him once appearing in 338 consecutive games. He finished with career averages of 6.0 points and 7.9 rebounds.<\/p>\n

But his best skill was defending the rim, and once told a story about how Wilt Chamberlain offered him advice about his career. He incorporate the tale into a motivational speech, telling others that Rule No. 1 for success is to \u201cknow your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWilt grabbed me by the arm, took me out on the floor, positioned me right in front of the basket. He said, \u2018You see this basket? Your job is to stop players from getting there. Your job is to make them miss their shot, get the rebound, throw it up to the guard, let them go down the other end and score and your job is to cruise up to half-court and see what\u2019s going on,’\u201d Eaton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Wilt shared that with me, everything changed. I understood what I needed to do,\u201d Eaton said. \u201cI understood what I could be great at. Wilt showed me what my job was and how doing what I did would benefit my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eaton also served as an officer in the National Basketball Players Association, and the union released a statement Saturday saying he would be missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be cliched, but it\u2019s true: Mark Eaton was a giant, in every sense of the word,\u201d the NBPA statement said. \u201cA long-time member of the NBPA Executive Committee right through his retirement from the league in 1994, Mark served his colleagues with grace and strength, and continued to watch over them through his service for the Retired Players Association. His imposing physical presence made a delightful match with his warm and thoughtful manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eaton\u2019s No. 53 was one of the first jerseys retired by the Jazz. He was the defensive player of the year in 1984-85 and 1988-89, was a five-time All-Defensive team selection \u2014 three first-team nods, two second-team picks \u2014 and was an All-Star in 1989.<\/p>\n

He was taken with the 107th overall pick by Phoenix in the 1979 draft, then drafted again at No. 72 overall by Utah in 1982. And he never left; his last game was in 1993, but back problems ended his career and he retired in September 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a great ride, but life does have a way of moving on and I must move on with it,\u201d Eaton wrote in a column for The Salt Lake Tribune in which he announced his retirement. \u201cThank you for letting me be a part of your life and community. I\u2019ll be around.\u201d<\/p>\n

True to his word, Eaton remained a Utah mainstay for the rest of his life.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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“#Former Jazz great Mark Eaton dies at 64” Mark Eaton, the 7-foot-4 shot-blocking king who twice was the NBA\u2019s defensive player of the year during a career spent entirely with the Utah Jazz, has died. He was 64. The team announced his death Saturday. Eaton left his home for a bike ride Friday night in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":262634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Mark-Eaton.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[107811,107830,3674,91160],"class_list":["post-262633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-30-21","tag-mark-eaton","tag-nba","tag-utah-jazz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}