Former NBA star Nate Robinson received a kidney transplant nearly 20 years after being diagnosed with kidney disease.
Robinson shared the news in an Instagram post on February 7, announcing that he was scheduled to undergo the procedure that day. In his caption, he expressed his gratitude, saying, “I’m here to celebrate and thank the LORD for all he has done in my life, today is the day I get my new kidney.” He also thanked everyone who supported him with prayers and messages of encouragement, adding, “Ur a foo if you dnt believe in GOD and the miracles he performs !! Amen.”
After the surgery, Robinson’s mother, Renee Busch, provided an update on his recovery to NBC affiliate KING 5. She shared that he was still in the hospital recovering and added, “It’s over, and now the best is yet to come.”
Busch had been by Robinson’s side since his 2006 kidney disease diagnosis and publicly revealed in 2022 that he had been undergoing treatment for renal kidney failure for four years. She reflected on the diagnosis, saying, “We didn’t know anything about it, it was new to us. We just took it one day at a time. It was hard, and it was a journey, but we got through it.”
She called the surgery a “really big” moment for the family and expressed gratitude, saying, “We’ve been blessed. I just know that God is real in my life and in his life, and we’ll have another story coming.”
Chicago Bulls Struggle in January Amid Effort Issues and Trade Deadline Uncertainty (NBA)Before the surgery, Robinson shared supportive messages from his friends on Instagram. He continued posting updates the day after his surgery on February 8, celebrating its success.
In a June 2024 interview with Men’s Health magazine, Robinson opened up about his health struggles. After his 2006 diagnosis, doctors warned him that his kidneys were likely to fail in his 30s. Robinson recalled, “I felt like I was Superman. I never thought I would get sick.”
In 2018, his kidneys failed, leaving them functioning at less than 15% capacity. After contracting COVID-19 in 2020, he was hospitalized for a week and told by doctors that dialysis was his only option. Robinson explained how difficult the experience was, saying, “They told me I might as well start dialysis today… The only way you will walk out of here alive is if you start dialysis.”
He admitted that he was “so angry” and “so mean” during his dialysis treatments and spent most of the first two years not leaving his house except for the kidney center visits. He said, “Some days I didn’t want to leave the house; I just didn’t want to do dialysis no more.”
