Standing tall at 6’11", Olden Polynice has played with some of the best teams in the NBA, like the Seattle Super Sonics, Utah Jazz, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and Sacramento Kings. Olden was born on November 21, 1964 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and has been a professional basketball player since almost his freshman days. Polynice holds the reputation of being one of the best NBA offensive rebounders. Having lived through his share of glory and pain, Polynice finally retired from NBA in 2004.
Polynice started his basketball career as a freshman at the University of Virginia. As a college player, he averaged 16.1 ppg and 8.0 rpg while shooting .572 from the field. Polynice opted to play in Italy, and later came back to join the NBA Draft in 1987. Picked by the Chicago Bulls, he was later traded with Scottie Pippen of the Seattle Super Sonics before he even stepped on the Bulls’ floor. In the 1988-89 season, Polynice played 80 games but was in the court for an average 10.4 minutes per game.
In the early part of 1989-90, Polynice played seven games where his average stood at 7.1 points with 6.4 rebounds while shooting .458 from the floor. He also scored a season-high of 18 points in a game against the Utah Jazz on March 15. Polynice began the 1990-91 season with Seattle but later traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. He excelled with the LA Clippers and averaged 12.3 points with 9.1 rebounds in 36.5 minutes per game. He finished the season with 79 games at an average of 9.8 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
IN 1991-92, Polynice made 65 out of 76 appearances for L.A Clippers, and averaged 8.1 points with 7.1 rebounds in 24.1 minutes per game. In 1992-93, he went through another trading as L.A Clippers traded him to the Detroit Pistons for William Bedford. He broke his right hand while playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers and was rested for the next 13 games. His season high ended with 27 points against the New Jersey Nets during the season finale and on November 17, he pulled down 19 rebounds against L.A Clippers.
The 1993-94 NBA season was probably one of the best for Polynice as he emerged as the best rebounder, a career-high of 11.9 rebounds per game to finish fifth in the NBA. He played only 68 games, but had a season total of 809 rebounds, which broke his previous record by more than 250. With a small muscle tear in his left knee, he was out of the court for almost 12 games. The 1994-95 season was no different as Polynice played 81 games for the Kings and made 10.8 points with a team high of 9.0 rebounds per game. He was instrumental in improving King’s defense and notched single-game highs of 27 points and 18 rebounds. In 1995-96, with the Kings, he scored a career-high of 12.2 points per game, shooting .527 from the field and shot to the 14th rank in the NBA.
From 1996-2000, he grabbed victories over the Seattle Super Sonics (111-92), Minnesota (95-84), Philadelphia 76ers (92-90) and Dallas Mavericks (102-95).
TRIVIA
• Polynice has established the "Helping Out Our People" Foundation, for the less fortunate in U.S. and Haiti
• He is an accomplished disc jockey
• He and wife Raechel have two sons, Nikolas Justin and Chase, and two daughters, Tiara Alysha and Alexis
