Kings fans fell in love with big man Scot Pollard after he joined the squad early in the lockout shortened 1998-99 season. Gregarious and zany, the former Kansas star found a home as a wild-haired extrovert backing up Vlade Divac and Chris Webber on the blocks.
Pollard played five seasons in Sacramento before he was traded to the Indiana Pacers as part of the Brad Miller deal. While he started just 49 games in a Kings uniform and never averaged more than 6.5 points and 7.1 rebounds, he was an integral part of the Kings’ golden years and remains a fan favorite to this day.
Back issues plagued Pollard later in his career. He retired at the age of 32 after winning an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics during the 2007-08 campaign, although he played only 22 games that season.
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Since retirement, Pollard has done some television work covering basketball in Boston, Indiana and Kansas, and in 2016, he joined the cast of the reality television series, Survivor.
While Pollard didn’t win it all and isn’t exactly in love with how he was portrayed on the show, he still has fond memories of the experience. He traveled to a remote island in Cambodia, lost 46 pounds and was the ninth member voted out and fourth member of the jury on the Kaôh Rōng season.
During the latest episode of the Purple Talk podcast, the 6-foot-11 big man shared some of his thoughts on the adventure, but he also answered a pressing question: which one of his former Kings teammates would have done the best as a cast member on the long-running show.
“It’s got to be Jason Williams,” Pollard said. “It has to be, I can’t think of anyone else.”
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Williams, who played with the Kings for three seasons from 1998-01, is one of the most gifted passers in NBA history.
Both Pollard and former teammate Doug Christie, who was also on the show, went down the list of teammates and gave reasons why it wouldn’t work.
“It can’t be Vlade [Divac], he would be like, 'Challenge? No, no,'” Pollard said. “Peja [Stojakovic]? No, he’s too pretty -- all the bugs crawling all over him. Not Lawrence [Funderburke], there’s no box fan and eye mask.”
Funderburke, who played six of his seven seasons in the league with the Kings, was known to travel with a large box fan to drown out surrounding noise. He would have a tough time finding a power outlet on an isolated tropical island.
Why would Jason Williams be so successful on the show?
“Without knowing what Scot is going to say, I would first and foremost say that J-Will would do anything,” Christie said. “That’s part of it. He’d be down to do whatever. If you’re going to ride on a bus in the middle of winter without a shirt on, I mean where the luggage is, okay, you’re down to do anything.”
According to Christie, there was a time when Williams, as part of a wager, was willing to climb into the luggage compartment of the team bus shirtless on their way from an airport to the team’s hotel.
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The team watched out the window as Williams prepared to climb in before coach Rick Adelman played the adult in the room and told him to get back on the bus.
“From his background, from where he’s from, there is a little bit of just knowing stuff that city people do not know,” Pollard said. “I just think of how his mind works as far as the puzzles, because he was always doing magic tricks, he was alway doing pranks and setting people up for stuff.”
From the puzzles to the challenges, to the southern drawl, Pollard is convinced Williams would be great television. If Williams is anywhere as good with survival skills as he was with a basketball in his hands, he would do just fine.