http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/11642970p-12532025c.html
Pollard recoils when recalling infamous brawl
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 6:38 am PST Friday, December 3, 2004
At the moment, Scot Pollard is tender to the touch, but he can manage.
He's standing on the balcony of his Los Angeles hotel Wednesday afternoon doing this interview by phone, hours before his Indiana Pacers were to take on the Los Angeles Clippers. He's upright and walking, because if he were sitting, he'd be in agony.
Pollard's back, as stiff as those mutton chops known to engulf his face, wouldn't allow him to play against the Clippers. He's listed as day-to-day, though Pollard hopes to be mobile enough for an Arco Arena visit tonight for a Pacers club in dire need of active bodies - to perform in front of fans who appreciated his grit and slapped their knees at his endless stream of guffaws as the Kings' former funny man.
And should Pollard not be able to give it a go, he's certain his nice duds will be void of raining debris. He's in friendly territory.
Two weeks ago, Pollard and the Pacers were in the middle of one of the ugliest events in NBA history, when a hard foul by Ron Artest on Detroit's Ben Wallace triggered utter chaos. Pollard stood in stunned silence as mayhem ensued around him, teammates hurtling into the stands to track down spectators who had thrown a full beverage cup at Artest. And Pollard, in street clothes that night, could only gnash his teeth and ball up his fists as he tried to escort teammates through the Detroit tunnel amid a shower of garbage, beer, popcorn and assorted projectiles.
He pauses and exhales when the subject comes up now, because it had to be a scene and an aftermath of that magnitude to be able to mute Pollard. Artest was suspended for the remainder of the season, Jermaine O'Neal was suspended for 25 games and Stephen Jackson for 30, depriving a team talking NBA championship of its top three players.
"I don't ever want to talk about it again," Pollard said. "It was that bad ... I have a 6-year-old girl (Lolli) who didn't see it (on TV) and she didn't ask me about it. I will tell you that I'm happy I was not involved. I was trying to avoid any of that trouble. But I have to tell you that if I had been hit by something, I don't know what'd I'd do."
Pollard said shortly after the incident: "It was such a surreal scene. I just watched with disgust. The lack of security, the way we acted, the way they acted, there were a lot of poor decisions made.
"One of the special things about basketball is the fans are right there. The intimacy and fan interactions, that's something special. If people stop watching, the league will suffer."
Pollard once played for Detroit, his rookie season of 1997-98, and he cracked that the Pistons weren't good enough to elicit much fanfare.
"The best way to describe the fans back then," he said, "was sparse."
And Pollard uses humor as a way to describe a Pacers team kept together by baling wire, new additions off the free-agent scrap heap and hope. He has deemed the Indiana bench suddenly thrust into the forefront as the "Thanksgiving Leftovers."
"We are the 'Leftovers,' " he said. "It's not that we rallied around that term, but we have rallied.
"It reminds me of the Bench Mob when I first got to Sacramento (in 1998-99). We'd come off the bench and clean (stuff) up. We've got guys on this bench who have proven that they can play. I'm happy for the Thanksgiving Leftovers. They're still heating up."
Indiana started 3-1 after the suspensions but has since lost two straight. New players such as Tremaine Fowlkes and Britton Johnsen were brought in for depth. Fowlkes, a former Fresno State star, was living in Sacramento when he got a call.
"When you're in my predicament, a player that doesn't have a guaranteed contract, and an NBA opportunity knocks, you learn to ask questions later," Fowlkes told the Indianapolis Star. "I would have come without clothes or anything else."
The bench players who have helped fill the void of the suspended starters - Pollard, Jamaal Tinsley, Fred Jones, Austin Croshere and James Jones - were drafted NBA players. All were expected to contribute, if not start all at once.
"People may look at us and think: Oh, they're just a bunch of scrubs on the bench for practice," Pollard said. "That's not true. Everyone here can play. I feel good for all these guys."
But he's not feeling all that great himself.
Though he was pained by the trade before last season that sent him to Indiana as part of the Brad Miller deal, Pollard said he and his family have enjoyed Indianapolis. They like the city, the schools, their home, the fans, the cost of fuel, even.
"Gas is a lot cheaper here than California," Pollard said. "When you drive an SUV, that's a big deal."
Pollard got a rare start for his lone Arco visit last season, nearly a year ago on Dec. 7. He received a rousing ovation, and Wednesday he still called it one of the highlights of his career. It came during his most trying season, when he averaged a career-low 1.7 points in 61 games.
He has started four games this season, but his sore back concerns him greatly. Pollard has long maintained that he enjoys the competition and paychecks in the NBA, but he's not a basketball lifer.
He said his lower back pains are the result of taking so many spills, all the charges, all the collisions that come with the interior rigors of playing center.
When he took a fall against Minnesota on Nov. 9, Pollard's left leg went numb. He sat for a while, dazed, then pretty much took seven days off from any activity.
"I reaggravated it on a TNT game," Pollard said. "I was trying to mug for the cameras. Taking the charges, that gets all the chicks." Pollard added: "Backs are tricky. There are so many little muscles. It's hard to determine when you might come back. You can imagine, if I could play, I would. But I also want to be able to walk when I'm older, and the Pacers want me to be able to walk when I'm older."
Pollard recoils when recalling infamous brawl
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 6:38 am PST Friday, December 3, 2004
At the moment, Scot Pollard is tender to the touch, but he can manage.
He's standing on the balcony of his Los Angeles hotel Wednesday afternoon doing this interview by phone, hours before his Indiana Pacers were to take on the Los Angeles Clippers. He's upright and walking, because if he were sitting, he'd be in agony.
Pollard's back, as stiff as those mutton chops known to engulf his face, wouldn't allow him to play against the Clippers. He's listed as day-to-day, though Pollard hopes to be mobile enough for an Arco Arena visit tonight for a Pacers club in dire need of active bodies - to perform in front of fans who appreciated his grit and slapped their knees at his endless stream of guffaws as the Kings' former funny man.
And should Pollard not be able to give it a go, he's certain his nice duds will be void of raining debris. He's in friendly territory.
Two weeks ago, Pollard and the Pacers were in the middle of one of the ugliest events in NBA history, when a hard foul by Ron Artest on Detroit's Ben Wallace triggered utter chaos. Pollard stood in stunned silence as mayhem ensued around him, teammates hurtling into the stands to track down spectators who had thrown a full beverage cup at Artest. And Pollard, in street clothes that night, could only gnash his teeth and ball up his fists as he tried to escort teammates through the Detroit tunnel amid a shower of garbage, beer, popcorn and assorted projectiles.
He pauses and exhales when the subject comes up now, because it had to be a scene and an aftermath of that magnitude to be able to mute Pollard. Artest was suspended for the remainder of the season, Jermaine O'Neal was suspended for 25 games and Stephen Jackson for 30, depriving a team talking NBA championship of its top three players.
"I don't ever want to talk about it again," Pollard said. "It was that bad ... I have a 6-year-old girl (Lolli) who didn't see it (on TV) and she didn't ask me about it. I will tell you that I'm happy I was not involved. I was trying to avoid any of that trouble. But I have to tell you that if I had been hit by something, I don't know what'd I'd do."
Pollard said shortly after the incident: "It was such a surreal scene. I just watched with disgust. The lack of security, the way we acted, the way they acted, there were a lot of poor decisions made.
"One of the special things about basketball is the fans are right there. The intimacy and fan interactions, that's something special. If people stop watching, the league will suffer."
Pollard once played for Detroit, his rookie season of 1997-98, and he cracked that the Pistons weren't good enough to elicit much fanfare.
"The best way to describe the fans back then," he said, "was sparse."
And Pollard uses humor as a way to describe a Pacers team kept together by baling wire, new additions off the free-agent scrap heap and hope. He has deemed the Indiana bench suddenly thrust into the forefront as the "Thanksgiving Leftovers."
"We are the 'Leftovers,' " he said. "It's not that we rallied around that term, but we have rallied.
"It reminds me of the Bench Mob when I first got to Sacramento (in 1998-99). We'd come off the bench and clean (stuff) up. We've got guys on this bench who have proven that they can play. I'm happy for the Thanksgiving Leftovers. They're still heating up."
Indiana started 3-1 after the suspensions but has since lost two straight. New players such as Tremaine Fowlkes and Britton Johnsen were brought in for depth. Fowlkes, a former Fresno State star, was living in Sacramento when he got a call.
"When you're in my predicament, a player that doesn't have a guaranteed contract, and an NBA opportunity knocks, you learn to ask questions later," Fowlkes told the Indianapolis Star. "I would have come without clothes or anything else."
The bench players who have helped fill the void of the suspended starters - Pollard, Jamaal Tinsley, Fred Jones, Austin Croshere and James Jones - were drafted NBA players. All were expected to contribute, if not start all at once.
"People may look at us and think: Oh, they're just a bunch of scrubs on the bench for practice," Pollard said. "That's not true. Everyone here can play. I feel good for all these guys."
But he's not feeling all that great himself.
Though he was pained by the trade before last season that sent him to Indiana as part of the Brad Miller deal, Pollard said he and his family have enjoyed Indianapolis. They like the city, the schools, their home, the fans, the cost of fuel, even.
"Gas is a lot cheaper here than California," Pollard said. "When you drive an SUV, that's a big deal."
Pollard got a rare start for his lone Arco visit last season, nearly a year ago on Dec. 7. He received a rousing ovation, and Wednesday he still called it one of the highlights of his career. It came during his most trying season, when he averaged a career-low 1.7 points in 61 games.
He has started four games this season, but his sore back concerns him greatly. Pollard has long maintained that he enjoys the competition and paychecks in the NBA, but he's not a basketball lifer.
He said his lower back pains are the result of taking so many spills, all the charges, all the collisions that come with the interior rigors of playing center.
When he took a fall against Minnesota on Nov. 9, Pollard's left leg went numb. He sat for a while, dazed, then pretty much took seven days off from any activity.
"I reaggravated it on a TNT game," Pollard said. "I was trying to mug for the cameras. Taking the charges, that gets all the chicks." Pollard added: "Backs are tricky. There are so many little muscles. It's hard to determine when you might come back. You can imagine, if I could play, I would. But I also want to be able to walk when I'm older, and the Pacers want me to be able to walk when I'm older."
