The Utah Jazz may find the cure for their problems in the middle is a man once called "a cancer" for another team.
But Olden Polynice says he's not a fatal disease, just a "hard-hat kind of guy." He sees himself more like those white blood cells that fight off infection. Certainly not the mutated killer he's been compared with in the press."How can I be the cancer in the locker room when I'm the guy who's trying to keep everybody loose in the locker room?" Polynice asked. "When I'm the one who takes the guys who get cut out to dinner or who cooks for them? I'm like the ultimate team guy. I just go about my business. Nobody has ever touched one of my teammates. How does that make me a cancer?"
The newest member of the Jazz said it's his candor with the press, and the dishonesty of others, that have labeled him a troublemaker unfairly.
"(The bad press) upsets me because people get a misconception," he said. "I've had my share of wrong things I've done. I've had arguments with coaches. Everybody has. But I've never threatened to kill anybody. I've never put my hands on anyone."
He said his trouble comes with commitments that are made behind closed doors, not kept and then "they go to the media and change the story."
"I don't respect or appreciate being lied to by a coach," Polynice said from his home in Sacramento. He also said he feels strongly that he should be open to the media, and sometimes that has brought him the disdain of management.
All of this shifts the focus, he said, from where it really ought to be.
"This is a great opportunity for me to go to a team (the Jazz) where the work ethic is wonderful," he said.
The no-nonsense, no-frills approach to the game is what Polynice said he's all about.
"My agent pointed out that I fit Utah's mold to a T," he said.
Polynice characterizes himself as a dependable player who's more concerned about team success than individual glory. "Get the lunch pail and let's go to work. It's not about glitz with me. I'm a hard-working guy."
The Jazz clearly hope Polynice's play can supply additional power in the middle. At 7-foot, 250 pounds, Polynice averaged nearly eight points and nine rebounds in 31 minutes a game for the Sonics last season. He agreed to come to the Jazz as a backup to often maligned starter Greg Ostertag. But if hard work counts for anything, he's hoping to win as many minutes from Big O as he can.
"I'm going to give you 150 percent, if there is such a thing," he said. "I think I'm going to get an opportunity to score in Utah. I don't have to worry about getting the ball under the basket when I'm standing there wide-open, unlike some of the other teams I've played on. (Stockton) thinks pass first.
Polynice said he's only given his decision to come to Utah one brief second thought. "When I made the decision to come there, the next day is when the tornado hit," he said. A deeply religious Catholic, he wondered if it was a sign from God. He said he talked to a number of teams, including the Lakers, Detroit, Indiana and Atlanta, before opting for the Jazz.
So why is he so different from several other NBA players who've rejected opportunities to play in Salt Lake City? "I want to play on a good team," he said. "I would play in the Sahara Desert if I had to. There's no one in the league who plays power forward as good as Karl Malone. There's no point guard in the league as good as John Stockton . . . Anytime you get a chance to play with a top team, you go for it."
He also fits in the with the Jazz a number of other ways. He and his wife, Rachel, have four children and one on the way. Most of the Jazzmen are married with children, and the organization seems to put a priority on families. "I love being a father," he said. "To me, kids are the best."
He also loves the nuances of his profession. The soon-to-be 34-year-old New York native works out hard and studies film to improve his play.
"I'm a student of the game, unlike a lot of new players," he said. "I do have old films. I see how the game has changed and evolved. I see how John Stockton likes to come off that pick. When I guard Hakeem (Olajuwon), I know where he's going before he goes. I may not beat him every time, but I know."
And he believes he has enough quality basketball left in him for several runs at a ring with Utah.
"I take care of my body," he said. "I figure I can play good for another six years . . . I'll play until one of these 21-year-old hot shots can outrun me or outwork me."
The 12-year veteran is saddened and disappointed by some of basketball's younger generation currently being put in the spotlight.
He laments guys who get paid millions only to take days off "with a hangnail . . . That's what the league is going to. Putting all of its efforts -- marketing and otherwise -- in the young kids and pushing all the veterans aside."
He points to Kobe Bryant's snub of Karl Malone when they met at an All Star game two years ago. "I thought, 'He (Bryant) doesn't have any idea who he just waved off,'" Polynice said. "The baton is being passed and (the younger players) have a big responsibility."
Polynice never dreamed of being a basketball player when he was a child. Born in Port au Prince, Haiti, it was his grandfather's reports of America that brought his family to what they believed would be their "land of opportunity." His father came to the United States first in 1968. He worked multiple odd jobs and saved enough money to send for his wife in 1970. She got a job as a maid and together they worked and saved to send for their children. The second oldest of five, Polynice was 7 at the time.
"That was the most wonderful day in 1972, when we were all reunited," he said. Polynice distinctly remembers his brother on one side of him, his sister on the other. They held hands as they exited the plane, but he walked up the runway in New York alone.
"I remember not even waiting for anybody, just walking down the runway," he said. "I just couldn't wait. I knew my parents were there, and I wanted so badly to see them."
He grew up in New York hearing from his parents how important it was that he get an education so he could have a better life. In high school, the then 6-2 freshman was recruited to play basketball. His mother was against it until the coach told her there was a good chance her son could play well enough to pay for a college education.
"Then she said it was OK," he laughs. That first year he only got on the court after the final buzzer sounded. But he grew 5 inches during the year, and he worked out every day to improve his game.
"I just really dedicated myself to it. I figured if I was going to do it, I was going to give it my whole heart." Polynice earned a scholarship to the University of Virginia. He entered the school and the basketball program in the shadow of Ralph Sampson, a three-time player of the year from Virginia. He said he was constantly compared with Sampson his first year there.
"It was annoying," he said. "That's all I heard about, how I was supposed to be his replacement . . . I just wanted to go in there and enjoy college. I heard it every day of my freshman year. Then we made it to the final four."
That's where the comparisons stopped. He left school, despite being very close to graduating, as a junior. He was drafted by Chicago in the first round as the eighth pick in 1987 and then traded to Seattle. He's played in Seattle (twice), Los Angeles (Clippers), Detroit and Sacramento.
He makes his home in Sacramento because he has a business there. In addition to blocking out and pulling down rebounds, Polynice said he designs clothes. He's got a new line of clothes coming out next year -- mostly casual wear.
When he retires, he said he'll finish his degree and then go to law school. He wants to practice corporate law in his life after hoops.
"I figure I still have a lot of life left in me,"he said.