Nate Robinson, NBA Dunk Contest Winner, Reveals Serious Health Battle and Urgent Need for Kidney Transplant

Nate Robinson with the Boston Celtics jersey in 2010, one of the teams he played for in his 12 seasons in the NBA (Elsa/Getty Images)

Former basketball player Nate Robinson has been going through severe health problems for two years, as he suffers from kidney failure and in the last few hours he confessed that his situation is increasingly serious, because he needs a kidney transplant to continue living.

At 39 years old and with a long career in the NBA, where he played for notable franchises such as the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, among others, the three-time winner of the dunk tournament (2006, 2009 and 2010) at just 1.75 meters tall stature described the ordeal he experiences daily and the struggle he has had for four years with the search – until now fruitless – to find a donor.

“I know I don’t have much time left if I can’t get a kidney. I won’t have much time left to live. So I just want to make the best of it that I can,” Robinson told the British media Daily Mail and also acknowledged that without dialysis treatment he would only survive “a week or two.”

With 650 games played in the NBA and an average of 11 points in 22.5 minutes per game, the Seattle native said that after undergoing dialysis he suffers from frequent vomiting and pain that leaves him hospitalized for one or two days. “Some people’s bodies reject dialysis. Thank God mine accepts it and I can live…if I didn’t go on dialysis I probably wouldn’t live more than a week or two. So it’s serious, you can’t miss a day. I go in three days a week, four hours a day and they cleanse my blood to remove my toxins. “They help me a lot because that’s how I live,” Nate continued.

Nate Robinson with the Chicago Bulls in 2013. The point guard, a three-time winner of the NBA dunk tournament, suffers from kidney failure (Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

The “machine,” as the former Knicks point guard describes the dialysis process he undergoes, helps him keep him alive at this difficult time. “I’m just enjoying the moments when I feel healthy. I try to go out with my kids, see my family and play basketball, do the things I love. “I still try to do everything I can to stay and feel as normal as possible, to be as human as possible,” he added.

On the other hand, the athlete who also ventured into other disciplines such as American football and boxing, in which he performed an exhibition in 2020 with the famous YouTuber Jake Paul, said that he had to modify his diet to improve his quality of life.

“There are a lot of things you have to review. You have to have measurements of everything you eat and drink. You cannot commit excesses. I changed my diet and am just trying to eat better, staying away from a lot of processed foods. I just try to eat fruits and grilled food, chicken and fish, healthier things. That’s the way I can survive and stay alive. as much as I can,” she completed.

Finally, Robinson stressed that he will fight for his life and left an encouraging message: “I stay as humble as I can and I simply thank God for every opportunity… every day it is a blessing to be alive and be able to do what I do every day . “Some people go to the hospital to get kidneys and never come out.”

The boxing fight between Jake Paul and Nate Robinson, on November 28, 2020 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles (Joe Scarnici/Handout Photo via USA TODAY Sports)
2024-04-11 16:23:00
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