Figuring his basketball career was over at that point, Eaton enrolled at the Arizona Automotive Institute in Glendale, Ariz., graduating as an automotive service technician. Returning to Orange County, he took a job as a mechanic in a tire and auto body shop specializing in brakes, front ends and tuneups.
He might still be there -- "I think I aspired to be a manager," he says -- if not for happenstance. One day a Cypress College assistant basketball coach named Tom Lubin drove past and noticed a mechanic towering over a customer.
Lubin, whose uncle Frank Lubin (nicknamed Frankenstein) played for the U.S. Olympic basketball team in the 1936 Olympics, eventually talked the now 7-4 Eaton into giving basketball another try. Eaton played two seasons at Cypress, working untold hours in the gym with his tireless mentor and helping the Chargers win a state championship in 1980. UCLA awarded him a scholarship.
His Bruins career, however, was a near-repeat of his high school experience. He played only 41 minutes as a senior and was left off the traveling squad for the season's final trip. He resigned himself to a life of grease under his nails.
But Lubin wouldn't give up.
"He could see something in me that I couldn't see in myself," Eaton says. "He could look a little further beyond my view and see the possibilities. He probably had his doubts whether I could make it in the NBA, but at the same time he made that commitment to be there for me every day. That's such a rare thing these days, where you'll have a coach or a mentor that will make that kind of commitment, that just sees something in you and ... won't let you fail."
Lobbied by Lubin, the Jazz rolled the dice and selected Eaton in the fourth round of the 1982 draft, drawing on the basketball adage, "You can't teach height."
Then-Jazz coach Frank Layden took it a step further, throwing Eaton into the starting lineup midway through his rookie season just to see what would happen. Eaton continued working on his strength and agility, developed an uncanny ability to block shots and remained a fixture in the starting lineup for the next 10 years. He was selected to play in the All-Star game in 1989, and he appeared in more games for the Jazz than anyone other than John Stockton and Karl Malone.
The Jazz, which earned its blue-collar reputation because of players such as Eaton, paid him the ultimate compliment in 1996, retiring the No. 53 worn by a player who averaged 6.0 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.5 blocks.
"It's a remarkable story when you look back on it," Eaton admits, "but it's hard for me to really be objective because it's just what happened to me.
"It was just a series of events that fell into place."
And, thanks to Dymalski, it's coming soon to a theater near you.
jerome.crowe@latimes.com
