Former Knicks guard Nate Robinson made a sobering admission that he doesn’t have long to live if he can’t find a new kidney.
Robinson, 39, revealed in October 2022 he was undergoing treatment for renal kidney failure, which he had been dealing with for four years.
“I know that I don’t have long if I can’t get a kidney,” Robinson, a Knicks fan favorite, told the Daily Mail. “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 … 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.”
The 5-foot-9 three-time champion of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest has been hospitalized at times due to painful vomiting.
“The [dialysis] machine has been helping my longevity and my life right now,” said Robinson, who added he cut of processed food to try to stay healthier. “So, I’m just enjoying the times where I do feel healthy. I try to get out there with my kids, see my family and play basketball, do the things that I love.
“And I still try to do all the things that I can to stay and feel normal as I can, stay as human as I can.”
Robinson, a first-round pick by the Knicks in 2005, shared with Playmaker HQ on YouTube in 2022 that he was told in 2006 that his blood pressure was high, and ensuing tests showed his kidneys were failing.
He played four-plus seasons for the Knicks and later bounced around with the Celtics, Thunder, Warriors, Bulls, Nuggets, Clippers and Pelicans.
Robinson has also dabbled with boxing; he got knocked out by Jake Paul in the second round of a Nov. 28, 2020 fight in Los Angeles on the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. undercard.