Los Angeles Lakers: 10 best small forwards in team history
By Amaar Burton
5. Jim Pollard (1948-55)
According to Basketball-Reference.com, Jim Pollard had two conflicting nicknames: “The Kangaroo Kid” and “The Man With The Long Gray Beard.”
Keep in mind, this was in the early days of the NBA; the pre-James Harden era when young pro athletes didn’t rock lengthy beards. So the image of a bouncy high-flyer looking like Charles Darwin is kind of strange.
The old-man nickname could’ve come from the fact that Pollard entered the NBA as a 26-year-old rookie. After helping Stanford win a national championship in 1942, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and served during World War II before eventually joining the Minneapolis Lakers.
Pollard (No. 17 in the photo) put together a Hall of Fame career with the Lakers, winning five championships and earning four All-Star and All-NBA nods.
Legend has it that Pollard could dunk from the free throw line and touch the top of the backboard. Provable facts are that Pollard averaged 13.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in his eight-year career with the Lakers.
Pollard went into coaching after his playing days, and during the 1959-60 season was interim head coach of the Lakers for 39 games.
Jim Pollard passed away in 1993.