SACRAMENTO — HIS HAIR IS A shocking shade of streaked blond, bolting up and away, as though he put his face to a fan. But that's still a couple of steps down the shock scale from where it was in other seasons.
Some days his hair is long and stringy in a grunge sort of way, drawn up in a high ponytail. He has also been known to shave his head but leave the Van Gogh beard or taper his sideburns so they trail along the edge of his jaw line.
The painted nails don't appear as often as they did when he was in college at Kansas, which would have been a relief to his late father, who played the game when they used the two-hand push shot. (Perhaps he couldn't find the right shade to match his handbag.)
As Tuesday's Game 2 of the NBA playoffs approaches, Sacramento's Scot Pollard is also sporting a wiry beard that makes him look like Billy Goat Gruff.
In the post-Dennis Rodman era, someone had to take up the task of being the league's most outrageous figure. Enter Pollard. He's tall. He's tough. He's coming to you live and in living color.
And he's a long way from his home state of Utah.
"Yeah," he says without apology. "I'm related to about half the state."
He's just not sure how many of them want to claim him.
The story of Pollard, son of Ute legend Pearl Pollard, and brother of former BYU players Alan and Carl, has been well chronicled. He spent the first 12 years of his life in Utah. Then the family moved to San Diego.
"As soon as I got out of the house, I wanted to do my own thing," he told the Las Vegas Sun in January. "I told my dad before he died that I wasn't going on a mission. I said, 'Dad, it's not my thing. I'm not going to be a Mormon. As soon as I don't have to go to church anymore, I'm not going to go.' "
He wasn't a fan of the LDS Church, to be sure. But he wasn't a fan of the Jazz, either. He didn't watch NBA or NCAA basketball much on television. "I still don't watch a lot of sports," he says.
Although his older brothers served LDS missions and went to BYU, Scot made a point not to follow. His route took him to the University of Kansas, where he became the fourth-highest rebounder and second-highest shot-blocker in school history. He was selected No. 19 overall by Detroit in the 1997 NBA Draft, acquired by Atlanta in a trade, then waived by the Hawks. Sacramento signed him twice as a free agent before committing to a multi-year deal in August 2000. Now he's not only their resident eccentric, he's the entire league's.
That Pollard would be a story this week has as much to do with his Utah connections as his game. He played just 10 minutes in Game 1, failing to score or gather a rebound.
"I'm going to actually look forward to making a contribution on the court, as opposed to [Saturday], when I didn't really do anything on the court except foul people," he bluntly says. "So I've got low expectations. I'd just like to do something on Tuesday, as opposed to nothing."
Colorful as he is, in both dress and rhetoric, Pollard is no Dennis Rodman. Rodman smoked big cigars, gambled, stayed out all night and chased glamorous women. Pollard likes to "watch movies and hang out with my family — my little girl and wife. I'm a home body."
What's a self-respecting cultural icon to do? He even allows his wife to, as he puts it, "drag me to a chick movie now and then" — something the incorrigible Rodman would never allow.
Likewise, despite his offbeat look, Pollard is educated and articulate. He earned a degree in education at Kansas, where he played with current Jazz center Greg Ostertag. He makes a point to let people know there is more on his mind than peroxide.
Eventually, though, the conversation swings back to hair, nails and beards. Nobody wants to talk about education. He is asked if he is more conservative than his image.
"Absolutely," says Pollard. "My on-court or on-TV persona is much talked about and aggrandized, to the point that people try to compare me to Dennis Rodman. I do have a different way of doing things, but I'm much more of an introvert than people know."
After all, he wouldn't want everyone looking at him.
E-MAIL: rock@desnews.com