Nate Robinson is sharing a tough update with the public this week.
Speaking in an interview with Jake Nisse of Daily Mail Sport, the former NBA guard Robinson said that he is still awaiting a kidney transplant and does not expect to live for much longer without one.
“I know that I don’t have long if I can’t get a kidney,” Robinson said. “I know I’m not going to have long to live. So I just want to make the best of it as much as I can.
“Some people’s body reject dialysis. And thank God that mine accepts it and I can live,” he continued. “If I didn’t go to dialysis, I wouldn’t live probably longer than a week or two. So it’s serious, can’t miss a day. I go in for four hours, three days a week, four hours a day. And they clean my blood to get my toxins out. And they help me out a lot because that’s how I’m living.”
Robinson, who is still only 39, revealed in 2022 that he was battling renal kidney failure. He said at the time that he had already been fighting it for four years by that point (presumably since 2018).
Later in the interview with Nisse, Robinson, who has been searching for a kidney donor since 2020, also said he deals with frequent, painful vomiting as a part of his condition (which often leaves him hospitalized for a day or two). You can read the full interview here.
A first-round pick back in 2005, the 5-foot-9 Robinson played ten seasons in the NBA for eight different teams. He averaged 11.0 points and 3.0 assists per game and also won the Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend three different times (which is still a record). Since last playing in the NBA in 2015, Robinson played for several pro teams overseas and then had a forgettable foray into boxing in late 2020.
