On today’s show I sat down with retired NBA center Scot Pollard, who was a 2008 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics in his last of 11 professional seasons, which included a three-year run with the Indiana Pacers.
Scot talks about his life from growing up poor in Utah and Del Mar, California, to becoming a star at the University of Kansas and being drafted 19th overall in 1997 by the Detroit Pistons. He recounts his NBA journey through Detroit, Sacramento, and Indiana, highlighting the 2002 Western Conference Finals Game 6 free-throw controversy between the Kings and Los Angeles Lakers that led to a Game 7, the 2004 “Malice at the Palace” brawl between the Pacers, Pistons and fans, and learning he was traded via TV.
He then details a genetic heart anomaly that also killed his father, triggered after illness and worsening into heart failure despite multiple ablations and drugs. After initially resisting, Pollard pursued transplant listings and was hospitalized at Vanderbilt, receiving a heart transplant on Feb. 16, 2024 from donor Casey Angel. He describes recovery, a pacemaker dependency, survivor’s guilt counseling, meeting the donor family, and promoting organ donation and travel assistance through his wife’s Pearls of Life Foundation.
If you like this episode and want to hear more Get IN. episodes where I interview Hoosiers making a difference, visit getindiana.com/podcast.
You are going to learn about:
Scot Pollard’s Background and NBA Journey
Heart Failure, Receiving a Transplant, and the Recovery Process
The Pearls of Life Foundation
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