A defensive force in the league 18 seasons, Tree Rollins stands tall as seventh all-time shot-blocker in NBA history. Perhaps an even more telling statistic was that in 15 of his 18 seasons his team advanced to the playoffs. At the end of his career in Orlando, Rollins tutored a young center who was learning the NBA ropes: Shaquille O'Neal. Today, Rollins is big enough to admit he's not big a fan of poet Joyce Kilmer, credits many of his blocked shots to the defense (or lack thereof) of Dominique Wilkins and gripes that the legal system treated him far worse than Linda Tripp.

Tree Rollins averaged more than two blocks a game in his 18 seasons in the NBA. Steve Roseboro/NBAE via Getty Images

SI.com: Your birth certificate says "Wayne Monte Rollins." How did you come to be called "Tree?"

Tree Rollins: On the playground of Cordele, Georgia back in ninth grade, Tree was just thrown at me because I was blessed with being tall and skinny -- real skinny, you're talking skinny with an Afro. They had just refurbished the playground with new trees, and when you put out new trees in the springtime, they're bushy at the top and very skinny in the middle.

SI.com: What does Tree Rollins do each year for Arbor Day?

TR: Back when I was playing I'd work with the community planting trees. It was really big in Atlanta. They had a program called "Trees over Atlanta." In Orlando they had a program called "Trees for Orlando." But lately I haven't been doing that.

SI.com: Are you at least big fan of the Joyce Kilmer poem: "I think that I shall never see ..."

TR: " ... something as beautiful as a tree?" I've heard that a few times. I'd have to say no, not really.

SI.com: That's not under a magnet on the Rollins family refrigerator?

TR: I don't think it would be a good look for me there.

SI.com: You graduated from Clemson in 1977. Not many players get a throwback edition of their college uniform. But now, your No. 30 Clemson home jersey sells for $169.00 on most Internet sites. Do you get a piece of that business?

TR: That's something that the Magic Johnson group started a couple years back. I put that money in my kids' trust. Hopefully that fund will take care of my last daughter's education. Magic works with Adidas on that, and they approached me two or three years ago. It was a no lose situation for me. It was an honor, really, to even be asked about using my jersey.

SI.com: When you arrived in Atlanta as the NBA's 14th draft pick overall in '78 the Hawks camp was loaded with offensive talent including John Drew, Steve Hawes, Eddie Johnson, Lou Hudson and Pete Maravich. How did a then second-year NBA coach Hubie Brown integrate your defensive style of play?

TR: Hubie would start the older guys and at the six minute mark the rookies, Eddie Johnson, Charlie Criss and I, would go in and just run-and-gun and press and trap all over the place. One thing Hubie and then-assistant coach Frank Layden told me is, "don't bring any fouls home." Use all your fouls and play tenacious defense. That was Hubie's thing: Play defense.