'I'm the son of Poison': Scot Pollard's ESPN Father's Day doc will bring you to tears

Indianapolis Star

a day ago

INDIANAPOLIS -- Scot Pollard unbuttons the top of his shirt and stands up, bearing his chest which inside beats the heart of Casey Angell.
With tears in her eyes, Angell's widow walks over to Pollard, puts a stethoscope in her ears and places the tiny monitor to Pollard's skin.
Pamela Angell hears thumping. Strong and steady. Thump-thump ... thump-thump ... thump-thump. It is a beautiful sound.
Angell may no longer be with Pamela but, inside this room, he is with her. Living inside Pollard.
Soon, it's not just Pamela crying, but Angell's sister, Megan Tyra, Pollard's wife, Dawn, and Pollard, too. He is meeting the family of his heart donor for the first time, the people who loved the man who saved his life.
The emotional scene plays out in the ESPN "E60" film, "Heart of Pearl," which debuts 1 p.m. Sunday for Father's Day. It tells the story of former Indiana Pacers player Pollard who received a heart transplant in February 2024.
The film also examines the impact Pollard's father, Pearl "Poison" Pollard, had on his life. The elder Pollard died waiting on the transplant list in 1991 when Scot was 16.
ESPN followed Pollard as he waited on a heart at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and as he received his new heart and then as he recovered. The film ends with Pollard meeting the family of the donor who gave him another chance at life who, in turn, received their own gift.
"We're grateful, yeah, we're grateful that Scot's here with Casey's heart," Pamela tells Pollard and Dawn in the film. "And William has another person to look up to as a father figure."
William Angell was 12 when his dad died.
"I feel for you. I know what it was like. I was 16 when my dad died," Pollard says to William. "And I was the last one in my family to see him alive."
Pollard had gone surfing the morning of Oct. 28, 1991, for a physical education class he was taking at Torrey Pines High in San Diego.
As he was coming up off the beach, his dad drove by in a white truck. Pearl was a public works director for the city of Solana Beach who made sure the roads were taken care of and the sand was raked.
When Pollard spotted his dad, he raised his hand and waved. Pearl stopped and asked, "What are you boys doing?" Pollard told his dad they had just finished a surfing class. Pearl said, "Get back to school."
"I said, 'Alright, dad,'" Pollard says. "He said, 'Take care.' That was the last thing he said."
A couple of hours later, a friend of Pollard's called him. "Scot, I just saw your dad's car. It's crashed, and there are paramedics working on him."
Pearl Pollard had died. He died when his heart failed him as the truck he was driving rolled gently through a stop sign and into a parking lot, then came to rest against some parked cars. Pearl died waiting on a heart transplant.
The autopsy said the cause of death was cardiomyopathy. He was 54.
One year before he died, Pearl was diagnosed with heart issues, but he had been sick much longer. The family noticed he was falling asleep a lot, passing out. Pearl would be talking to them and the next thing they knew, his skin was gray and he was out.
They finally convinced him to go to the doctor, who told Pearl he needed to be put on the heart transplant list. But at 6-9 and 380 pounds, doctors said, it would be tough to find a heart big enough.
"We knew it was a death sentence," Pollard says in the film. "So, obviously, 16 years old, that kind of stuck in my brain."
Pollard was still 16 as he stood at his father's funeral, unable to believe and accept the man he loved and looked up to so much was gone.
"He was a giant of a man in every single way possible. Everybody loved my dad," said Pollard. "Everywhere I went in Utah when I was a little kid. 'You're Pearl's son, aren't you. Is that Poison's kid?'"
Now, Pearl was gone and Pollard was facing a dark reality.
"I was just thinking, 'God, I'm going to grow up without a dad,'" he said. "On the other hand, I was mad at him for not taking better care of himself."
Pollard's sister, Lyne Jorif, says in the film she remembers hugging her brother a lot, trying to comfort him, trying to make him feel better.
"And just the look on his face. Nothing was going to console him," she said. "His worst fear of losing his dad had just happened."
That basketball season at Torrey Pines, the team wore black bands in memory of Pearl and as a way to show their support for Pollard. He changed his jersey to No. 31, his dad's number.
"He said, 'I'm going to honor my dad,'" said Jorif. "'I'm the son of Poison.'"
Pearl Pollard had been a standout basketball player in high school and at the University of Utah, nicknamed 'Poison" because he was so lethal on the court, it was as if he was poisoning his opponents. Playing basketball was something Pollard had done for his dad. Now, he was gone.
"It hurt too much to pick up a basketball and not have his dad. We just both kind of hit the wall and we slid down to the floor and we cried and cried, and it took him a while," said Jorif. "I told him, 'It's OK. You don't have to. Dad would never push you. Dad would tell you to do what you need to do."
Pollard knew what he had to do.
"The real reason I was ever successful at basketball was because my dad died. That was the catalyst. My dad passing just sharpened everything inside of me and made me angry," said Pollard. "And I went bat(expletive) nuts."
Pollard took his anger and turned it into a passion and fierceness on the court as he played at the University of Kansas and then in the NBA. He was known for his relentless, competitive drive. Just like his dad.
And 15 years after Pollard retired from the NBA, he found himself re-living the exact same health journey his father had lived.
"We've got to talk about transplant," Dr. Sunit-Preet S. Chaudhry, a specialist in congestive heart failure at Ascension St. Vincent, told Pollard in September 2023. Pollard had been short of breath, his skin was gray and he was sleeping all the time.
"I thought, 'Well, I'm going to die,'" Pollard told IndyStar inside his Carmel home in December. "I was 16 when my dad died on the transplant list because in 1991 you couldn't transplant a giant. That's it. I'm going to die just like my dad."
Doctors tried to encourage Pollard that medicine had come a long way in the more than three decades since his dad died from cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that weakens the heart's ability to pump blood effectively. There was a good chance they could find a heart big enough for Pollard's monstrous body.
"I very seriously considered just letting it ride," said Pollard, who played in the NBA 11 years, including for the Indiana Pacers from 2003 to 2006. "You know what? I've had a wonderful life and family. Maybe it's just ... let's just ride this out because I don't want to die in the hospital.
"And thank God, (Dawn) talked some sense into me."
Pollard couldn't give up on his failing heart. He couldn't leave behind Dawn and his four children. He might be the son of Poison, but he was going to take a different road than his father had.
In February 2024, Pollard got his new heart. Angell's heart. When he woke up, he realized how close to death he had been. He was so very grateful. And he knew, he had to meet his donor's family.
"Thank you guys for making that decision (to donate Angell's organs)," Pollard tells the family in the ESPN film. "Because if you hadn't made the decision, I may not be here."
"Heart of Pearl" premieres 1 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. Streaming will be available after on ESPN+
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