As unbelievable as it might sound, the story of Mark Eaton's improbable rise from auto mechanic to end-of-the-bench UCLA scrub to NBA All-Star with the Utah Jazz is not a tall tale, even though the protagonist stands 7 feet 4.
It's an inspirational saga worthy of a movie, says independent filmmaker Stacy Dymalski, who optioned the rights last fall and is writing a screenplay.
"I think it's a great story to tell and that's why I wanted to tell it," Dymalski said from Park City, Utah, where Eaton also lives. "I think it will appeal to people who would like to think they wouldn't give up on themselves."
As a teenager in Westminster, Eaton was 7 feet tall "and yet," Dymalski notes, "he felt so small and insecure and shy. Everybody looked at him like, 'You must get everything you want because you're so big,' and yet he got nothing."
Eaton, 50, would seem to have it all these days.
After retiring from the NBA in 1993 after 11 seasons as a defense-minded, lane-clogging starting center for the Jazz, the two-time NBA defensive player of the year worked eight seasons as a Jazz broadcaster. He was host of a TV show focusing on jazz -- the musical genre, not the team. An avid skier and fisherman, he was host of another TV show focusing on the outdoors.
A husband and father of two teenage boys, neither of whom is taller than 6-2 and neither of whom plays basketball, he is a managing partner in two award-winning Salt Lake City restaurants and for 14 years spearheaded a nonprofit that served as host of camps for at-risk youth in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah.
"You never think your own story is all that interesting, or that it would be worthy of a movie," Eaton says, "but it's definitely unique."
Eaton launched yet another career as a motivational speaker about 1 1/2 years ago, and when he enlisted Dymalski to help polish his prose -- the two had met through mutual friends -- the filmmaker was intrigued by his back story.
Or, as Dymalski came to view it, the heart of her movie.
She says it will pick up in Eaton's senior year at Westminster High, where he was a 6-11 water polo goalie before the basketball coach talked him out of the pool and onto the end of his bench. A frustrated Eaton rarely left his seat.
"I was growing, I was uncoordinated, and I don't think the coaches knew what to do with me," he says. "Teaching big-guy basketball requires different teaching abilities than teaching a guard how to run a play. The coaches didn't know how to teach me to play big, and I didn't know how to play big."
