Pollin today is remembered most fondly as a sports team owner---the man who bought the Baltimore Bullets to Washington, brought NHL hockry to the city, women's pro basketball, and other sporting endeavors.
He presided over one world championship, the 1978 Bullets' NBA title.
But he was also a crackerjack businessman, a developer who left his legacy across the region's landscape, in numerous apartment towers in Montgomery County and the District. His prime development legacy, let there be no doubt about it, will be the MCI Center, which Pollin built out of his own pocket while the city suffered from crippling financial woes and went on to anchor the rebirth of downtown Washington.
Though well known as a hellish negotiator, Pollin was generous with his riches, donating heavily to Jewish causes (he helped save the Sixth & I Synagogue, for instance) and, among other good works, paying for an entire elementary-school class to go to college.
The Washington Post writes:
Pollin was among the last of the old-school pro sports owners who ran his teams as a family business, shaped by his strong personality and his intense loyalties. His teams lost more than they won, and fans often criticized his personnel moves and his failure to spend more money, but Pollin invariably remained set in his ways.
He was also a major philanthropist in the community, paying for affordable housing and endowing a local Boy's and Girl's Club. His grandest project was building the MCI Center (now Verizon Center) in 1997 and triggering a stunning renaissance of Gallery Place and surrounding neighborhoods.
From: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/11/24/abe-pollin-dies-at-85/
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