After years of waiting and battling renal failure, former NBA star Nate Robinson got a life-saving assist.
The three-time Slam Dunk champion announced that he has received a kidney transplant.
The 40-year-old, who played 11 seasons in the NBA, posted on Instagram that he was getting a new kidney last Friday.
ESPN later reported that Robinson received his new organ from a living donor during an hours-long transplant at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
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“He’s still in the hospital for a few more days, but he was able to meet his donor and they’ll be watching the Super Bowl together tomorrow,” Polo Kerber, a rep for Robinson, told People in a statement, saying the transplant went well.
On Saturday, Robinson shared a photo on Instagram with his donor, Shane Cleveland, together in the hospital.
“God bless this man named Shane Cleveland y’all, meet my donor & he is one cool dude,” he wrote. “I need everybody to stop what you are doing & follow him @pnw_whaler this man literally saved my life by giving me his kidney!!!
“Hey Shane, just wanna let you know we are family now & you’re stuck with me. Y’all ever heard of family at first sight because that’s what we are.
“Big ups to the University of Washington & all the doctors that took great care of us.”
Robinson had posted earlier in the week about the good news, writing that he was “here to celebrate and thank the LORD for all he has done in my life.”
“Today is the day I get my new kidney,” Robinson captioned his post. “Thank you to all the people that sent prayers and texted my phone giving me encouragement & love!!! Ur a foo if you (don’t) believe in GOD and the miracles he performs!! Amen.”
Last April, Robinson told the Daily Mail that he didn’t “have long to live” if he couldn’t find a kidney replacement and had been searching for four years.
“I know that I don’t have long if I can’t get a kidney,” Robinson told the outlet. “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.”
The three-time NBA Slam Dunk champion also said that without dialysis, he would die within a “week or two.”
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“Some people’s body reject dialysis. And thank God that mine accepts it and I can live … 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 played for the Knicks, Celtics, Thunder, Warriors, Bulls, Nuggets, Clippers and Pelicans during his career, but was best known for his feats in the annual Slam Dunk contest on all-star weekend.
Despite standing just 5-foot-9, he won the competition in 2006, 2009 and 2010.
In 2020, Robinson stepped into the boxing ring with Jake Paul and suffered a second-round knockout at the hands of the YouTuber-turned-pro-fighter.