Abe Pollin’s dream of one more NBA championship was well known to the Washington Wizards family, as was the reality with which Pollin faced his own mortality.
It is a dream left unfulfilled with Pollin’s death Tuesday.
“His thing he told me, he said before he passed away that he wanted to win another championship, so that is something that is always in your mind,” said Wizard’s head coach Flip Saunders. “I guess the sadness I have is in him passing away and how we’ve been playing. But he’ll be looking at us from above, and he’ll be monitoring our progress.”
Pollin’s competitive spirit drove him throughout the 46 years that he owned the Wizards, but not because of the recognition it brought to him personally. The deterioration of Pollin’s health over the last few years was difficult for veteran players to watch, but even wheelchair-bound he still made it to the team’s training camp in Richmond earlier this fall.
“He wanted to win because he was a competitor and for what it did to other people,” said Wes Unseld, whose 14-year NBA playing career in Washington peaked with winning an NBA title for Pollin in 1978. “It made other people swell their chest and take pride in where they were and who they were. It was a little bit different. He followed that every day I knew him for 40 years.”
Pollin was determined enough to outlast the failed hiring of Michael Jordan earlier this decade and re-sign both Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison to pricey contracts in search of a title, a fierce loyalty his biggest stars were determined to match.
“It hurts,” said Wizards guard Arenas. “We’ve just got to stick together, and he wanted a championship before he died, and as long as I’m here, that’s what I’m going to be shooting for.”
