player Jeremy Evans jumped over a seated Eaton to dunk the ball. In later years, Eaton became a mentor to Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who joined him as the only other player in the franchise's history to be named defensive player of the year. Personal life Eaton married in 1980 to his first wife, Marci, a registered nurse who trained in Los Angeles. She worked as a nurse in Santa Monica to support him while he was going to college. They had two sons, Nicolas and Douglas. While living in Utah in Jeremy Ranch in the 1980s, Eaton ordered a mountain bike suitable for his body frame, and he biked a number of the region's first mountain bike trails. Around 2016, he began riding a custom French-built road bike for tall cyclists, which came outfitted with wheels. On May 28, 2021, Eaton biked with a neighbor to lunch. A few hours after returning home, Eaton told his wife, Teri, that he was going for a short ride in the neighborhood. He died after a bicycle accident about a block from his home in Park City, Utah. He was found unresponsive by a passerby and was pronounced dead at the hospital. He was 64 years old. Publications See also List of National Basketball Association career playoff blocks leaders List of National Basketball Association single-game blocks leaders List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise List of tallest players in National Basketball Association history References External links 1957 births 2021 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball players from Inglewood, California Basketball players from Salt Lake City Centers (basketball) Cycling road incident deaths Cypress Chargers men's basketball players National Basketball Association All-Stars National Basketball Association players with retired numbers People from Westminster, California Phoenix Suns draft picks Road incident deaths in Utah Sportspeople from Orange County, California UCLA Bruins men's basketball players Utah Jazz draft picks Utah Jazz players