Scot Pollard is sad to report the death of an old friend  his 1969 Cadillac Seville convertible “Marvin the Martian.”

“I had to get rid of Marvin  it totally rusted out,” said the always eccentric Sacramento Kings/former Kansas University forward. “I had a guy look at the frame. He said, ‘Don’t you ever drive this car again.’ He wouldn’t let me drive it home from the shop so I just gave it to another guy.”

Pollard returned to his offseason home of Lawrence on Tuesday with pregnant wife, Mindy, their daughter, Lolli, and a shiny Lincoln Navigator.

Pollard, sporting mutton chop sideburns and highlighted hair, not only drove “Marvin” during his KU days (1994 to ’97), but as late as last summer when he tooled around Lawrence in the convertible.

“I had to get another Cadillac, so I got a ’52 hardtop,” Pollard revealed. “It’s almost done. It’s not going to be here this summer.

“That’s it. I’m done now. No more toys. They cost too much.”

Truth be known  Pollard can afford a lot of toys.

The 6-foot-11, 265-pounder, who averaged 6.4 points and 7.1 boards last season, is enjoying the benefits of a six-year, $30.89 million contract that runs through 2005-06. Living and loving the good life in Sacramento, Calif., where he is a fan favorite, Pollard was dismayed this week to learn of a newspaper report that said the Kings might have to consider trading him in order to dump some salary to stay under the league’s cap.

“Hopefully we don’t make any big moves like shipping No. 31 off some place,” said Pollard, who wears No. 31. “I think I jinxed myself by moving into a new house there. As soon as you buy a nice place in the NBA you get traded. It happened to Jon Barry last summer. I told my wife to keep her fingers crossed because I’ve jinxed us.”

Pollard now has two abodes  one in Lawrence and one in California.

“I won’t sell the house here. We need a home base,” Pollard said. “That’s why we got it in the first place. Earlier in my career we were in different cities (Detroit and Atlanta before Sacramento). We wanted a home base.

“If all else fails, we can come back here. This is like a home to us even though my wife and I are not from here. We’ve adopted it as the place we want to stay.”

Pollard likes the fact he’s able to work out at KU and play in offseason pick-up games with current and former Jayhawk players. And he likes hanging around his college coach, Roy Williams, who on Wednesday night happily held Pollard’s 2-year-old daughter in his arms as Pollard prepared to warm up for a pick-up game.

“We’ve got another girl on the way due in November,” Pollard said. “We are keeping the name under wraps right now. We may change our mind.”

Pollard, who said he’ll be in Lawrence until training camp rolls around, is hoping to return as an NBA champion next summer.

The Kings led the Lakers three games to two in the Western Conference finals, only to drop the final two games, including Game Seven in Sacramento.

“We should have rings on our fingers now,” Pollard said. “We pretty much threw everything we had at them. I thought we had the series won. ‘That’s all I have to say about that,'” he added, doing an imitation of actor Tom Hanks in the movie “Forrest Gump.”

Pollard, who logged a career-high 23.5 minutes a game last season, will work on his game this summer to up those totals even more next year.

“Personally I’m going to try to be able to score a little more so coach (Rick) Adelman can put me in more pressure situations,” Pollard said. “I know he respects my defense and knows I will not turn the ball over much, but I’d also like him be able to look down the bench and see a guy who can score 15, 16 points as opposed to three.”