The Mark Eaton Story: Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

Posted Dec 27, 2006 6:00AM By Matt Watson (RSS feed)

If you thought former Jazz center Mark Eaton looked big on the basketball court, just wait until you see him on the silver screen. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Utah-based screenwriter/producer/director Stacy Dymalski is working on a movie about Eaton's life, hoping audiences will relate to Eaton much in the same way they do Rudy and Rocky.

Wait, you're telling me a 7-foot-4 basketball player was once an underdog? Hard to believe, but it's true. After barely playing for his high school team, he became an auto mechanic for two years before being spotted by Tom Lubin, a local college recruiter. After a couple of years of junior college he landed at UCLA where he again languished on the bench.

Despite barely playing in college, the Jazz took a chance on him with a fourth-round pick simply because of his size, and it wasn't long until he developed into an absolute force (and I'm not just talking about his legendary beard). The guy put up numbers absolutely unheard of by today's standards: he averaged 3.5 blocks per game over an 11-year career, and in 1985 he rejected a ridiculous 5.6 shots per game, which is still an NBA record.

"So many people go through life and cannot change direction," said Lubin. "When I first met Mark, he didn't like being tall. He was very sound at work. He was a very good mechanic. But he didn't like himself for being that tall.

"The greatest thing I see is how basketball allowed him to smile and be happy with himself. Everything that has happened was supposed to happen. That's how I feel. It's just beautiful."

Beautiful enough to actually make it to theaters? Time will tell, but I'd sure as hell see this movie before I ever watch the Ryan Leaf story.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-27-2006 @ 6:48PM

Jerry said...

I remember "Man Mountain" as they liked to call him and Eaton's story is a good one for sure and may indeed do well at the box office in a society obsessed with the "underdog mentality," but to place it amongst the great underdog sports stories ever, whatever different people determine those to be, is a stretch in my view. I've always thought people's fascination with underdog stories and scenarios speaks to a certain inherent inferiority complex that most people possess whether they'd acknowledge as much or not, but maybe not. Tom Lubin's presumptuous and somewhat sappy take on the story sounds much like something a woman would say, but perhaps that says a great deal about Lubin himself.

12-28-2006 @ 6:15PM

Tom Newbauer said...

I knew Mark when he went to Cypress College,I was his mailman at the apartments he lived,he was tall and gangly I didnt think he would make it in the NBA but little did I know. I use to tell him to step back away from me when I was putting the mail in the boxs because his crotch would be in my face,he was slim then but turned into a big man.