Utah Jazz great Mark Eaton dead at 64

Mark Eaton, a defensive giant for the Utah Jazz, is dead after a bicycle accident Friday night. He was 64.

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The Summit County Sheriff’s Office was called around 8:26 p.m. after a neighbor found Eaton unconscious, with his bike nearby, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Eaton was taken to a hospital where he died. His cause of death has not been determined. It does not appear a vehicle was involved in the accident.

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Alan Lancaster Alan Lancaster, a founding member of the 1960s band Status Quo, died Sept. 26. He was 72. ( C Brandon/Redferns via Getty Images)

He got his start playing basketball after an assistant coach for a basketball team at a junior college saw Eaton when he was working as a mechanic. Eaton was eventually persuaded to play basketball at the junior college where he was discovered by UCLA, which offered him a scholarship to transfer. He did not play often and was eventually selected in the fourth round of the 1982 NBA draft, the Tribune reported.

Eaton, at 7-foot-4, was a large defensive presence for the Utah Jazz. He was defensive player of the year twice. He holds the NBA record for career blocks per game, the Tribune reported.

“He was an exceptional person, and he cared about others. It wasn’t always about him. And he played that way. He was a real team player, and he was interested in winning more than getting his own statistics,” Jazz coach Frank Layden told The Tribune. “People forget that he was the captain of the Jazz. And he also was a leader in the NBA — he was head of the Retired Players Association. So he was a guy who was always thinking of others or working with others and helping players who needed help after their careers were over. He was the guy that a lot of players called, and he he went to work out to help them out.”

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