INDIANAPOLIS — Just six days ago, Scot Pollard had a heart transplant at Vanderbilt Medical Center.
Pollard played for five NBA teams, including the Indiana Pacers, and thousands of fans have followed news of his health recently.
He told 13News anchor Anne Marie Tiernon he's grateful for the win.
"I still feel better than I felt when I came in here," Pollard said. "And that's the crazy part is I'm still very fresh, I'm still healing. There's a long road ahead of me."
Six days ago, surgeons placed an incision in Pollard's chest.
"Right there," he said. "Wow. Big hands, but it's about five inches, maybe a little longer. You would think it'd be down to my belly button because they have to open up so much to get the heart out and get the new one in, but that's it."
Pollard is 6' 11" and 300 pounds. It was great size for professional basketball, but it complicated the search for a donor match.
"My field of donors is big, and to be a huge person with a big heart and they've given me that, they've given me a gift of life," Pollard said. "And that's something I can never repay. So, it's it's still a lot to process, the emotional part of it."
He hopes someday to make contact with the donor's family.
"All we know is there's a big man with a big heart, and all we can assume is that his life, we know, is not going to go in vain," Pollard said.
Pollard's wife, Dawn, has provided updates on social media, including, remarkably, his first steps just 24 hours after surgery.
"I'm continuing that," Pollard said. "I've walked twice a day every day since."
Thousands have reached out with well-wishes.
"Well, it's been humbling," Pollard said.
And terrifying.
"I couldn't possibly have made that heart get better, and it was closer than I think everybody realized," Pollard said.
They've rented an apartment and will stay in Tennessee for months until doctors say he can head home to Indiana.
According to the Indiana Donor Network, one donor can save or heal up to 83 people. Click here to sign up to be a donor.