Nate Robinson has a new kidney.
The ex-NBA guard received the new organ during an hours-long transplant surgery that began Friday morning at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
Robinson, who began the day surrounded by friends and family, received his new kidney from a live donor.
As ESPN chronicled in the summer of 2024, Robinson first learned nearly 20 years ago, when he was playing for the New York Knicks, that his kidneys weren’t functioning properly and that he would one day need a transplant.
Then, in 2021, Robinson learned that his kidneys were failing, and he began receiving weekly dialysis treatments at a Seattle clinic, where, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, he would sit in a chair from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. while a tube pumps fluids in and out of his arm.
Robinson had assumed, initially, that he would automatically be placed on a waiting list for a new kidney and struggled to navigate his way through the process.
In the fall of 2022, Robinson first went public about undergoing treatment for kidney failure, but it wasn’t until two years later, in the spring of 2024, that he announced that he needed a donor.
Soon after, Robinson told ESPN last year, the University of Washington – his alma mater – was inundated with offers from people willing to donate their kidney.
In the fall of 2024, Robinson underwent a series of procedures, including a colonoscopy, as the number of donors were whittled down to find an ideal match.
Before the procedure began Friday, Robinson posted on his Instagram, saying, in part,
Ex-NBAer Nate Robinson undergoes successful kidney transplant
