Scot Pollard’s 6-foot-11 frame enabled him play in the NBA for over a decade, including a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008. It may now be causing his death.
Pollard need a heart transplant, an already severe situation made more harder by the fact that so few donors can offer him with a pump large and powerful enough to deliver blood to his exceptionally large body. On Tuesday, he was admitted to intensive care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he will remain until a donor large enough to be a match becomes available.
“I’m staying here until I get a heart,” he said in a text message to The Associated Press late Wednesday. “My heart became weaker. Doctors agree that this is my best chance of getting my heart to beat faster.”
At over 7 feet tall and 260 pounds, Pollard’s stature knocks out most possible donors for a heart to replace the one that, due to a genetic abnormality likely caused by a virus he received in 2021, has been pounding an extra 10,000 times per day. Half of his siblings have the same illness, as does his father, who died at the age of 54 when Scot was 16 years old.
“That was an immediate wake-up call,” Pollard explained in a recent phone conversation. “You don’t see many old (7-)footers strolling around. So I’ve known that my entire life, since that was etched into my brain as a 16-year-old: yeah, being tall is nice, but I won’t live to be 80.”
Pollard, a 1997 first-round draft pick who helped Kansas reach the NCAA Sweet 16 in four consecutive seasons, was a productive big man off the bench for much of his 11-year NBA career with five different clubs. He played 55 seconds in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2007 NBA Finals appearance and won the championship the following year with the Celtics despite a season-ending ankle injury in February.
Pollard retired after the season and later dabbled in television and acting. He competed in the 32nd season of “Survivor,” where he was eliminated on Day 27 with eight castaways remaining.
Pollard, 48, has been aware of the ailment since his father died in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until he became ill three years ago that it began to damage his quality of life.
“It feels like I’m walking uphill all the time,” he told a reporter over the phone, warning that if he felt fatigued, he could have to cut it short.
Pollard took medicine and underwent three ablations, which are operations used to break up the signals that cause irregular heartbeats. A pacemaker inserted about a year ago only addresses roughly half of the problem.
“They all agree that more ablations isn’t going to fix this, more medication isn’t going to fix that,” Pollard went on to say. “We need a transplant.”
Patients in need of an organ transplant must traverse a complex system that strives to fairly match donor organs with recipients in need. The matching procedure takes the patient’s health into account, with the goal of making the most of the limited organs available.
“It is out of my hands. “It’s not even in the doctor’s hands,” Pollard explained. “It’s up to the donor networks.”
To increase his chances, Pollard was urged to register at as many transplant centers as possible — “it’s increasing my odds at the casino by going to as many casinos at the same time as possible,” he said. However, he must be able to travel within four hours, and the necessity to return for post-operative appointments makes it impossible to receive treatment away from home.
Pollard registered at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital in his hometown of Carmel, Indiana, and underwent tests at the University of Chicago last week. This week, he headed to Vanderbilt, which did the most heart transplants in the country last year. Pollard arrived on Sunday; on Tuesday, doctors admitted him to the ICU.
Pollard will wait there for a replacement heart that is both healthy enough to give him a shot and large enough to accommodate his huge stature. He had been classified as Status 4 (for individuals in stable condition), but now that he is hospitalized, he may be qualified for Status 2, the second highest priority.
“They can’t predict, but they are confident I’ll get a heart in weeks not months,” he wrote in a text message.
Pollard agreed that praying for a donor is akin to rooting for someone to die.
“The fact is, that person’s going to end up saving someone else’s life,” he went on to say. “They are going to be a hero.” That’s how I see it. I know what needs to happen for me to get what I need. So it’s a really difficult combination of feelings.”
Until then, Pollard waits, aware that the same genetic quirk that enabled him become a basketball great — his life’s defining success thus far — may also be a defining element in his death.
He’s known this since his father’s death.
“I’ve thought about that my entire life,” he told me. “I come from a family of giants.” I’m the youngest of six, and three of my brothers are taller than me. And people often say, ‘Oh, dude, I wish I had your height.’ Yeah? Let’s go sit in an airplane together and see how much you want to be this tall.
“It is not as if being tall is a curse. It is not. It is still a blessing. But I’ve always understood that there was a good probability I wouldn’t grow old,” he remarked. “And so it gives you a different perspective on how you live your life and how you treat people and all that kind of stuff.”
