He Can’t Shoot but He Makes 4-Point Plays

The first look you get at Mark Eaton, you think the Empire State Building has grown arms. You want to ask if there’s a restaurant on the top floor. If he asked you to meet him at City Hall, you wouldn’t know which was which.

The book says he’s 7 feet 4 inches, but that’s just an estimate. OK, Manute Bol is taller but Manute Bol is a country. And if Manute turns sideways, he disappears. He weighs 220. Eaton weighs 290. Or is it 390?

The best thing about Mark Eaton, who plays center for the Utah Jazz, is he doesn’t need the job.

Let me put it to you this way: What’s in shorter supply in this country--7-foot centers or qualified auto mechanics? If you think that’s an easy answer, try taking your car to Manute Bol the next time it overheats on the freeway.

Mark Eaton went to auto mechanics’ school right out of high school because he didn’t think he was a good enough basketball player to make a living at it. In this judgment, he was concurred with by just about every owner, coach and college administration in the land.

Except one. An assistant coach from Cypress College came in to get a lube job one day, took one look at the mechanic and probably thought, “If it can talk, we win the championship.” He left his card. Mark Eaton threw it away and resumed work.

But Tom Lubin persevered, and Cypress got its junior college championship. But when Eaton went on to UCLA, he did not put anybody in mind of Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In fact, he played only 41 minutes in his senior season.

When the Utah Jazz sent for some action film on him, says Coach Frank Layden, “All we got were pictures of him putting on and taking off his sweat clothes.”

Apologized one Bruin assistant: “All he can do is block (shots).” Well, in the immortal words of Illinois football Coach Bob Zuppke, all Caruso could do was sing. And all Tracy could do was act. Rembrandt probably couldn’t dance.

Mark Eaton made blocking shots an art form. He set a rookie record for blocked shots and then, two seasons later, in 1984-85, hung up the highest total in the history of the league. No one had ever blocked 400 shots in a season. Eaton blocked 456.

A case could be made, a blocked shot is worth more than a basket. It is catching a line drive above the fence with the bases loaded, intercepting a pass in the end zone, returning a blistering service with a winner. A steal is just a turnover. A block takes points off the board.

The National Basketball Assn. record book credits Mark Eaton with 3,461 points, a modest 7 a night. But what about the 2,076 blocks? That’s a lot of negative scoring. Not all of them were going to be baskets but chances are, most of them were. A lot of them were layups.

An Eaton-blocked shot is not your desperate wild-eyed swipe that either hits the ball or the nearest ear. It’s as calculated as a pocket pick.

“You don’t want to just swat it up in the fifth row someplace,” Eaton explains.

The trick is to slap it not only back into play, but over to a teammate. A blocked shot can become a four-point play, properly executed.

How does he know when to go up for the block--the eyes?

Eaton shakes his head. “The eyes lie,” he says. “A pro doesn’t let you know what he has in mind.”

He adds: “I just try to get them to commit. I try to get them to change shots. That can be as effective as a block.”

It helps to be 7-4 and have a wingspan of 90 inches. But Eaton describes his speed as, “One-tenth of a second better than slow.” Or, teammates counter, “One-fifth of a second better than not moving at all.”

He would have trouble jumping over the Sunday paper. He has the shooting touch of a polar bear. He gets his points the old-fashioned way: He blocks them.

He presided over one of the biggest upsets of the sports season Tuesday night at the Forum.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the only man on the courts today who has more blocked shots than Mark Eaton--4,004 to 2,076). And, of course, Kareem’s 37,838 points are more than anyone else has. Even at 41, he can be the most devastating force on any floor for 30 to 40 minutes.

But this night, his sky hook was coming up a foot short, he was being nudged into uncomfortable spots, awkward shots. By the end of the first half, Eaton had blocked 7 shots, pulled down 7 rebounds, been slickered into only 2 fouls--and the Utah Jazz had an 11-point lead. They managed to smuggle it into the clubhouse and turn it into their first win over the Lakers at the Forum in almost five years.

No one’s going to start comparing the Utah Jazz with the 1962 Boston Celtics. No one’s apt to start calling Eaton the Big E or Dr. M, but he’s had quite an impact for a guy who really thought he wanted to spend his future under a lube rack, checking crankcases for leaks.

How many guys in the NBA have a trade to fall back on if the blocks start slipping? How many could get out and fix the team bus if it broke down in Provo after a night spent subtracting points from the best shooters in the league?