- Scot Pollard went public with his search for a heart donor last month
- The 6-foot-11, 260-pound former basketball player had surgery Friday
- DailyMail.com provides the latest international sports news.
NBA champion Scot Pollard received a heart transplant on Friday, his wife shared on social media.
Pollard, who won the 2007-08 title as a member of the Celtics, needed a transplant due to damage to his heart caused by a virus he contracted in 2021. The virus likely triggered a genetic condition he has known about since killing his father in 54, when Scot was 16.
Pollard, now 49, underwent successful surgery after going public with his search for a donor last month.
‘Scot has a new heart!’ his wife Dawn Pollard posted on X.
‘The surgery went well and I was told the heart is big, powerful and fits perfectly. Now let’s move on to the crucial part of recovery. Thank you all for the continued prayers and support, but most of all, our deepest thanks to the donor, our hero.’
Scot Pollard and his wife, Dawn, share an intimate moment before his heart transplant
Dawn shaved her husband’s head and beard before he had successful surgery on Friday.
Pollard played one season with the Celtics in 2007-08 and won the NBA championship.
Before the procedure, Dawn shared intimate photos of her shaving her husband’s head and beard before the transplant.
She asked her followers to pray for her 6-foot-11, 260-pound spouse.
‘Scot wanted me to let everyone know that pre-heart transplant hair is no more, it’s time to do it! Please continue to pray for Scot, the surgeons, for the donor and his family who lost their loved one. “This donor gave the most amazing gift of life and we will be forever grateful.”
Pollard’s size complicated efforts to find a donor with a heart large enough to fit his body.
After making her condition public last month, she began the process of getting herself listed at transplant centers. He was admitted to intensive care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on February 7.
Pollard is seen playing with the Indiana Pacers in 2005 in a loss to the Denver Nuggets.
“I’m staying here until I have a heart,” he said in a text message to The Associated Press from his hospital room in Nashville, Tennessee. ‘My heart became weak. (The doctors) agree that this is my best chance to get my heart racing.’
Pollard, a first-round draft pick in 1997 after helping Kansas reach the NCAA Sweet 16 in four consecutive seasons, was a utility big man off the bench for much of an NBA career that spanned over 11 years and five teams. h
He played 55 seconds in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ trip to the NBA Finals in 2007, and won it all the following year with the Celtics despite a season-ending ankle injury in February.
Pollard retired after that season and then ventured into broadcasting and acting. He was a contestant on season 32 of ‘Survivor’, where he was eliminated on the 27th when there were eight castaways left.