Nate Robinson has received 'thousands' of offers for kidney donations

IN THE FALL of 2005, Robinson stood in a doctor’s office at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Midtown Manhattan. He was 21, a rookie for the New York Knicks, recently drafted 21st overall out of the University of Washington. He was there for a routine physical. The Knicks’ team doctor was a woman named Lisa Callahan. Standing 5-foot-2, most players she evaluated needed to sit down to look her in the eye, but Robinson, 5-foot-9, barely had to sit at all. She quickly took a liking to the Seattle native, known as a jokester. During the initial physical, Callahan noticed Robinson’s blood pressure was higher than normal — nothing too troubling, she told him, but something they should keep an eye on. High blood pressure, she knew, was common among the Black population. Robinson otherwise passed and proceeded to begin his NBA career. Later that season, in the spring of 2006, Robinson woke one morning feeling as nauseated as he’d ever been. He had no idea why. Throughout his life, he’d been healthy. He’d never missed a day of school. He’d never missed a practice. But, on that day, he felt sicker than at any point in his life. He worried he wouldn’t make it to Knicks practice. “Stop playing, bro,” a teammate told him. “You’re a rookie. You can’t be late.” “I’m sick,” Robinson said. “I’m not lying.” -via ESPN / July 16, 2024

He knew his teammates didn’t believe him. So he hopped in his car, drove to practice and couldn’t make it to the garbage can at the practice facility. He vomited across the training room. His legs began to cramp, then his hands, up and down his body. Callahan gathered Robinson and had him admitted at a nearby hospital. After blood work, Robinson sat there as doctors explained that his kidneys didn’t seem to be functioning properly, which is what had been leading to his high blood pressure. Robinson wasn’t sure what that meant. -via ESPN / July 16, 2024

Callahan told him she wanted to start monitoring his blood pressure more actively, because engaging in an intense, cardiovascular activity — like playing in an NBA game — could lead to a spike in blood pressure and, perhaps, a cardiac event. “‘We don’t want you having a heart attack on the court,'” Robinson recalled Callahan telling him. Robinson was taken aback. His NBA career had just started — and now it was in jeopardy? “I’m playing basketball,” he told Callahan. “If it happens, it happens. If I die doing what I love, then so be it.” -via ESPN / July 16, 2024