Utah Jazz Speaker, Mark Eaton

My career as a mem­ber of the Utah Jazz bas­ket­ball team is some­thing for which I will be eter­nal­ly grate­ful. I played for 12 sea­sons in that most sto­ried and classy NBA fran­chise! I cred­it the Jazz, and the peo­ple in it, with help­ing to mold me into the man and pro­fes­sion­al I am today. Every time I step on stage for my speak­ing events I make sure to rep­re­sent myself well as a Utah Jazz speak­er. 

Lessons Learned

The two most impor­tant lessons I learned dur­ing that time were:

• How to be a pro­fes­sion­al, and
• How to achieve suc­cess by work­ing in a team envi­ron­ment. 

We were always dis­cussing and prac­tic­ing these con­cepts, and when I speak, I relay those valu­able lessons learned and more.

Being a Professional

But let’s first talk about how to be a true pro­fes­sion­al in any field or indus­try. When I speak about pro­fes­sion­al­ism, I usu­al­ly talk about my ear­ly years in the NBA. Dur­ing that time, I was heav­i­ly influ­enced by my first head coach, the great Frank Lay­den. Frank was a hard-work­ing, blue col­lar, and pro­fes­sion­al coach. As a result, he made sure his teams and his play­ers act­ed like pro­fes­sion­als both on and off the court.

When I first entered the NBA I thought I had to be per­fect all the time. If I messed up on a play or made a mis­take, I would get vis­i­bly frus­trat­ed. But Frank stopped me with some very wise advice:

“Mark, stop get­ting mad about the mis­take you just made. No one cares and it is dis­tract­ing from your job.”

That was how I learned that being a pro­fes­sion­al meant mov­ing on from past mis­takes. 

Anoth­er thing I teach is how to work well in a team envi­ron­ment. Since the fran­chise began back in 1974, team­work, coop­er­a­tion, and team suc­cess have always been a part of its frame­work. When I speak, I make sure to empha­size those three points.

Speaking to Your Team

While play­ing for the Jazz, I learned that exe­cut­ing my role would help our team gain suc­cess and pros­per­i­ty over­all. I pro­tect­ed the rim, grabbed the rebound, and threw the out­let pass to the guards who went on to score. That was my role and it’s how I helped my team win. As a Utah Jazz speak­er, I talk to cor­po­ra­tions and their employ­ees about how they can dis­cov­er their own roles.

The Next Step

Thank you for con­sid­er­ing me as the speak­er for your event. I’ll share the inside sto­ry on what it takes to win and and help you dis­cov­er how to turn your peo­ple into top per­form­ers! To hear more about my expe­ri­ence and how what I learned can help your cor­po­ra­tion, call or email:

Call 800–998-7067Email to Book Mark

To check my avail­abil­i­ty, com­plete the form to the right. A mem­ber of my team will con­tact you direct­ly.