Former NBA player Olden Polynice appeared on Byron Scott’s Fast Break podcast, where he was asked to share the craziest night out he had before a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in his career. Polynice, who played in the NBA for 15 years, recounted his teammates sprinting away from a club after a woman who was talking to Mike Tyson was shot in the leg.
“The craziest one was we were at the Palladium partying, the whole team partying,” Polynice said. “Mike Tyson’s in there. I still remember it…because he hit me so damn hard in my side, I almost threw up… Anyway, we got outside, Mike’s talking to some girl, and we over here. We’re talking to women, blah blah blah blah.
“All of a sudden, pop, pop, pop, shots ring out,” Polynice said. “Everybody takes off. The girl that Mike was talking to got hit in the leg. I swear to God… And so we all take off running… The thing that makes this funny is watching all these NBA dudes running, and it was like we were sprinting. We were Usain Bolt.”
It’s completely understandable that they wanted to get out of the area as soon as possible. Polynice, though, wasn’t interested in running. He instead decided to hide out of sight.
“I just dove into the corner,” Polynice stated. “I’m not running. I don’t know what’s ringing, where it’s ringing, I just dove into the corner.”
Polynice didn’t mention what happened to the woman, but you’d assume she survived with how he was joking about the situation. Scott also pointed out that the players did not check on the woman, but you can’t be too hard on them for only being concerned about their own safety in that situation.
Olden Polynice Once Got Punched By Shaquille O’Neal
While Polynice came away unscathed that night, luck wasn’t by his side on another instance. The 60-year-old once took part in a pick-up game during the 1998 NBA lockout in which Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were also playing. Polynice was guarding O’Neal, who was exchanging words with Bryant during the game. The situation escalated to the point where the big man swung at the guard, but Polynice got in the way.
“So long story short,” Polynice said. “It’s like before you can say hello [Shaq says] ‘yeah I’ll kick you’re a**’ and Shaq goes like this (pulls back for a punch)… I basically push Kobe out the way, right, because I don’t do the grabbing people, unless it’s an absolute mess. So I push Kobe out the [way], as I’m pushing him out the way, the punch is like boom, but he hit me… this way over top of my head and pao! I’m like ‘What the hell?’ I’m like, damn, now I’m getting beat up.”
Polynice claims his ears ring to this day because of that punch. He kept holding on to O’Neal after getting punched, and eventually someone else managed to grab Bryant as well.
Polynice was hoping he’d get picked up by the Lakers at the time, but despite saving Bryant, he didn’t get signed by the team. He joined the Seattle SuperSonics instead and would play in the NBA for four more seasons. Polynice eventually retired in 2004 with career averages of 7.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game.
