You ask Scot Pollard about a trend you see developing in his life. You mention that he wielded a machete as a contestant during the current season of the reality show “Survivor.”
You remind the 11-year NBA player who attended Torrey Pines High School that he put the “axe” in “Axeman at Cutter’s Creek” — a low-budget slasher flick with the tagline, “A vacation to dismember.” You sprinkle in the fact that he played a serial killer in another movie, “Barrio Tales.”
So you ask: Is carrying around sharp, dangerous things some kind of creepy pattern?
“I guess I’m a big, strong guy that people think is a scary guy,” said Pollard, 41, who at 6-foot-11 is the tallest player in “Survivor” history. “So maybe I’m being typecast. I wouldn’t mind being in movies, being a bad guy.
“I’ve done it. I enjoyed it, especially when I filmed ‘Axeman.’ It was a very cathartic experience for me, because it was shortly after my divorce. It was hard, I’m sure, for the editors to edit out the parts where I was laughing after I fake-killed somebody.”
And you laugh, too, because — c’mon — that’s funny.
Pollard, the former Kansas Jayhawk, always has roamed his patches of Earth to a different kind of Mambo. His NBA hairstyles ranged from a Fu Manchu mustache to a Mohawk. At Sacramento, his ponytail earned him the nickname “Samurai Scot.”
The man who capped his career with an NBA championship, courtesy of the 2008 Boston Celtics, joined the reality show to see if he truly could outwit, outplay and outlast 17 adventurous rivals on a remote Cambodian island.
Soaking up the sun in San Diego, Pollard contends, provided a unique advantage.
“Being on the beach — a lot — it made me very comfortable in the ocean,” Pollard said of the show, which has aired two episodes this season. “There are some people who aren’t. So that’s one thing, check that off the list because I grew up around the ocean.
“I love being near the water. I would go shore fishing, I surfed when I could … I body surfed all the time, I boogie boarded.”
The familiarity with water fits the show, he said.
“I would absolutely say growing up in San Diego gave me a life experience that’s a factor in ‘Survivor,’ ” Pollard said. “If you’re not really comfortable swimming around in the ocean, seeing a shark or seeing a jelly fish or whatever, that’s something that I had that maybe some other contestants didn’t have.”
The NBA crafted another show-related edge.
Pollard was accustomed to investing time in preparation, both physically and mentally. He binge-watched past seasons of the program, much like long film sessions as a player.
“People ask me, when I used to play in college and NBA, if I was nervous before games,” he said. “There were games I was more excited for, but it wasn’t that I was nervous. Because I had always practiced so hard and prepared and watched film. I was ready. I always felt like I was ready for every game.
“I didn’t get nervous, because I was prepared. Going into ‘Survivor,’ I wanted that to have that feeling. I wanted to have that confidence.”
Time logged in professional basketball also positioned Pollard to deal with a modern-day, reality TV opponent — social media.
“There’s going to be people that come at me and say, ‘Oh, you made a mistake voting Darnell out’ (in Episode 1) for example,” said Pollard, who now lives in Carmel, Ind. “That’s just like when I played in the NBA. There were … fans that were like, ‘Pollard, you suck. You don’t belong in the NBA.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I’m one of 450 in the world. What do you do for a living?’
“You take the criticism, but you also understand that you’ve put yourself in it. I put myself in the spotlight. If I couldn’t have handled it, I wouldn’t have accepted the invitation.”
A life in professional sports had the potential to paint a target on Pollard, as well.
In his career, Pollard was paid more than $38 million. The winner of “Survivor” collects $1 million.
“Going into the show, that was my goal, to find out if this game is fair, regardless of your background,” he said. “Are people going to vote, because they look and somebody and say, ‘Well, they’ve got money, so they’re a threat. They don’t need the money, so let’s get them out of here?’
“I’ve been divorced and I gave most of my money to my ex-wife, so the, ‘Oh, he’s got money’ thing is tough to overcome. The reality of it is, I don’t have unlimited funds.”
Better hide the movie set props. Just in case.
On Twitter: @Bryce_A_Miller
