Former Cavs big Scot Pollard dishes on LeBron James, 2007 NBA Finals and more

He wasn’t with the Cleveland Cavaliers for very long, but Scot Pollard was one interesting dude.

In the 2006-07 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers were an up-and-comer, and eventually made a thrilling run to the NBA Finals. The team was of course carried by LeBron James, who is by far and away the greatest Cavs player ever, and from there, Cleveland had solid contributors such as Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes and others.

The bench pieces included Anderson Varejao, Eric Snow, Sasha Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson, by and large. It was clearly a squad that had James as its’ key cog, and even then, James just looked like a truly rare player that doesn’t come around often, if ever, with his build and ability to affect games in so many ways.

More from King James Gospel

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
• This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead

That season, James had 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.7 blocks per outing, and he was again the overwhelming reason the Cavs made their then-first NBA Finals appearance in franchise history. In Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals on the road at the Detroit Pistons, James had 48 points, and even had an otherwordly last 25 straight points for Cleveland in a double-overtime win.

Granted, in Game 6 of that series, as Cavs fans also remember so vividly, Gibson had a career-high 31 points, vaulting Cleveland to that appearance. Gibson had an unbelievable fourth quarter in that one, with 19 points and shot five-of-five from three-point range in that game, and also was four-of-four from deep in that closing period.

Now looking back, James and the Cavs ended up being swept by a far superior San Antonio Spurs team led by Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, but frankly at the time, it seemed like quite the accomplishment to have even gotten there. Personally, the sweep was the furthest thing from shocking to me at the time.

At any rate, while it was even more so a James-centric club back then, he was still really young, then just 22 and in his fourth NBA season. Considering that, the Wine and Gold needed veteran leaders/locker room guys around James, specifically, and Scot Pollard was seemingly a bench player that fit that bill, to an extent.

In that realm, in an interview on Wednesday, Pollard opened up some about that 2006-07 season and LeBron James, among other things.

In a recent interview, Pollard touched on that ’07 campaign with the Cavs, and had some interesting takes to add involving LeBron and hit on some other stuff. Here was the link to that interview with Nick Pedone of Pedone My Take, which is Pedone’s live sports talk show affiliated with BIGPLAY.com.

The interview with Pollard begins at roughly the 8:50 mark and goes through roughly the 41:22 mark.

Initially, it more so gives Pollard’s takes on the NBA bubble, and of which while he is hopeful it doesn’t lead to it, compared that to early in his NBA career when there was a lockout-shortened campaign in 1998-99, and that Pollard it concerned that there could be “a lot of injuries” ahead.

That’s with players not being in “NBA shape,” as Pollard put it, of which he was one of those players out of shape coming in himself, and that is not enough time to get guys in NBA basketball, let alone seemingly “playoff” basketball, shape.

It was pretty funny hearing about how, considering how the LA Clippers’ Lou Williams was reportedly forced into a 10-day quarantine by the league after going to an Atlanta strip club, Magic City, as h/t ESPN, following an excused absence in which he was all about getting their wings and they for a viewing for a father of a close family friend, that Pollard himself was quite the wing guy.

Pollard said to Pedone that he had Quaker Steak & Lube wings sometimes BEFORE Cavs games. That was something, huh?

From there, Pollard then touched on how while he does still have plenty of love for the Sacramento Kings, and name-dropped key members of their organization in general manager Vlade Divac, who he played with a bunch, and director of player personnel/development in Peja Stojakovic, that the Kings are a “dumpster fire.”

Well, they do have some promising young pieces such as De’Aaron Fox, Bogdan Bogdanovic and the fairly young Buddy Hield, but they do still have a ways to go, and their organization has been far from stellar for a while, as Pollard seemingly alluded to.

From that point, what really stuck out, though, was how Pollard highlighted how back in the year he played with LeBron and the Cavaliers, that while the team tried to engineer some leadership around James, it was difficult to have much of it stick with many of those pieces, such as Pollard, not playing much. Pollard himself was ever-grateful anyhow, and said that James was a “great teammate,” but did wish he was a “better leader,” albeit he noted how given James’ age then, he doesn’t put that on him, really.

In relation to the 2007 NBA Finals, Pollard then said to Pedone that he’s “Uncle Rico,” back from Napoleon Dynamite, because of essentially how if Pollard played “significant minutes” in that Finals, he believes the Cavs at least wouldn’t have been swept.

Pollard stressed how then-Cavs head coach Mike Brown told Pollard about how he did a good job against Duncan, which Brown remember dating back to when the two were with the Indiana Pacers, in particular, and that Pollard was told he’d be “starting,” even while he hadn’t been playing much that postseason.

Pollard didn’t get regular minutes in that ’07 Finals, though, but that was interesting to hear about from the dude, nonetheless, about how “Uncle Rico” believed his team would’ve taken state, but he didn’t get a chance “in the fourth quarter,” and anyway, that was a funny bit from Pollard.

Pollard then would go on to hit on how he believes his GOAT, when Pedone asked whether he’s a James or Michael Jordan guy, is “Wilt Chamberlain,” which was somewhat unique. A key bit from the Pollard interview, though, is that he believes the Cavs needed LeBron to have the mentality of MJ in that ’07 Finals, in terms of that demanding style.

Pollard would then emphasize Jordan’s style led to people knowing much more about pieces such as Steve Kerr, John Paxson and even was a key reason why Scottie Pippen had so much success in his career, whereas LeBron seemingly have that same impact and has joined others more so, such as was the case with Miami.

Pollard, who was really happy for Cleveland and James either way following their 2016 NBA Finals W after not seemingly being a huge fan of his Miami move, was still overall complimentary of James in the interview, and highlighted his work ethic, and his physical, one-on-one dominance. As we know now, James has turned into an amazing leader since that time early on in his career, though, for context.

Moving along, Pollard alluded to how, in relation to the current Cleveland Cavaliers/small market teams, that teams seemingly can be very active in free agency to compete, and cited his Kings days, or how teams can try to get lucky and land a player in the draft, seemingly, such as LeBron or with the Milwaukee Bucks, with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Moreover, he just hit on how it’s so tough for a team such as the Cavs, in that regard.

From there, it was really something to hear about Pollard’s stint on Survivor, too, which initially he noted how people often know of him from with him when they meet him in the real estate business, which he’s in now.

In any case, though Pollard did only in 24 games and only in 4.5 minutes per outing in his season in Cleveland, and then-had his fair share of hairstyles, he always seemed like such an interesting dude with plenty of personality. His interview with Pedone on Wednesday demonstrated that, too.

Pollard would then, even after he didn’t really want to go to the Boston Celtics initially, win a championship with the C’s in 2008 in what would be his last season.

For his career, Pollard played with the Detroit Pistons as a rookie, a sizable chunk of his career with Sacramento, then the Indiana Pacers before finishing out with the Cavs then C’s. He had 4.4 points to go with 4.6 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per outing in 16.5 minutes per game in an 11-year career.

Interesting is definitely the right description for Pollard, though, and again, this interview showcased that. I’m glad Scot Pollard is doing well.