NBA Champion, former Jayhawk Scot Pollard shares Indy 500 Parade Float with family of heart donors

May 25, 2025 by admin

The former Boston Celtics Center Scot Pollard, who underwent a heart transplant in 2024, observes how the Celtics played the Orlando Magic in Boston in game 5 of an NBA playoff basketball series in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Scot Pollard stood on the Benzingasse on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and tried not to cry.

The NBA champion and the candidate “Survivor” spoke of meeting the family of Casey Angell, whose heart now hit Pollard's breast. Angell's sister brought a stethoscope.

“She touched my chest. She listened and she started crying. She said: 'Hey, Bubba' because she used to call him,” said Pollard. “And we all lost it. And I'm just losing it.”

Pollard in the first round, who brought Kansas to the NCAA Sweet 16 years in a row for 16 years in a row, won the Boston Celtics 2008 by 2024. He was practically bedridden until 2024 and could not be able to walk around through the block or even carry out an interview without needing a break because a virus had weakened his heart.

Since he received the life -saving transplant last winter, he has devoted himself to raising awareness of organ donation, a mission that earned him the honor of serving as a large marshal for the Indy 500 Festival Parade on Saturday. Angell's family rode with him on the swimmer.

“Every time we see them and being around them is a great moment,” said Pollard in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. “But only to be able to share this experience as a large marshal with them and to be part of their lives.”

With 6-foot 11 and a game weight of £ 260, Pollard inherited his size from his father together with a genetic heart disease, which the doctors said that the doctors were triggered by a virus that left no choice as a transplant. The problem would be to find a donor organ that is big enough to pump blood in its NBA bodies in a central size.

In East Texas, which was 60 miles away, Angell was on life support with pneumonia caused by a respiratory disease.

“We made the decision that we let go and they came to us within about 30 minutes and asked for donations,” said Megan Tyra, who works as an administrator in the hospital where her brother died. “We saw how the heart went and went out of the door, and we were only said that it drove to Tennessee.”

In order to protect the privacy of everyone, organ receivers can only experience about their donors – and vice versa – via a system in which both sides have to agree. Pollard was said that most people would not hear back, but he still wrote a note. Angell's family replied.

(In addition to his heart, Casey Angel's Corneas and his kidneys were donated. The family was informed that the other recipients were two 17-year-olds and a 48-year-old and a 49-year-old; they heard from none of the other recipients.)

“Casey was a curious guy. He always wanted to know,” Tyra said with a laugh. “And when we got this first letter from Scot, we were grateful that Scot wanted to know something about Casey. He and (his wife) Dawn were so sweet and friendly and now say part of our family.”

You started a meeting in Texas this March. Tyra was there with her husband Clint; Angell's wife Pam; And her son William, who is now 13 years old. Pollard brought his family and cameras to record the event for a television documentary.

“At least it was a bit overwhelming,” Tyra said this week in a telephone interview from Indianapolis. “We never did for anything other than who was Casey, a helper, a man who would help someone do something. So it's a bit surreal, a bit overwhelming. But (Scot) and Dawn just do it.”

Pollard, who became 50 with the new heart in February after celebrating his one-year anniversary, said that he had suffered from the guilt of the survivor since receiving the transplant-the doubts that he was worthy of such a gift: “It is a challenge because I have to live properly.

Angell's family, he said, helped him to save twice.

“There were many days when I cried:” I don't know if I earn it, “said Pollard.” And when she answered and I met her and I learned a lot more about Casey, it definitely helped. He helped a lot with the healing. Not just emotional, obvious. “

Pollard hopes that the documentary and the other attention of the media, which he brings as a former professional athlete, will convince people to consider organ donation. Last month he spoke to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and received standing ovations from a congress center full of doctors, including his own; That night he took part in a Celtics playoff game and got another big cheer when he received a scream on the scoreboard.

Pollard, who spent two of his 11 NBA play times with the Indiana Pacers and settled near Indianapolis, was booked as part of the Indy 500 celebrations this weekend together with some other meet-and-greets for breakfast with the governor. He will watch the race – known as the greatest spectacle in the race – on Sunday in a suite with Angell's family.

“We are happy about the fact that we honor Casey and who was Casey. So it's just about Casey and the victim that Casey provided,” said Tyra. “We are grateful that Scot wanted us to meet and want us to be part of it and that he does so much for organ donation. It is amazing.

“You know that we never thought that our little one would be here for the small small town for the Indy 500,” she said. “But here we are.”