What Happened to Nate Robinson? Exploring the NBA Vet’s Battle With Kidney Problems Amid Call for Help

A month ago Nate Robinson’s announcement sent shockwaves to the basketball community. “I know that I don’t have long if I can’t get a kidney,” Robinson told The Daily Mail. The 3x NBA Slam Dunk champion is making the most of this time with his family and kids. “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.”

Robinson had undergone a kidney failure diagnosis two years ago. Ever since then, he has been on a hunt to find a donor who can help him save his life through a kidney transplant.

Beginnings of Nate Robinson’s problems

The former New York Knicks point guard in an interview with Playmaker HQ, shared the root cause behind his kidney failure. Doctors at the Knicks informed the 39-year-old of his high blood pressure issue. “They used to tell me that we’re going to have to check your blood pressure and if your blood pressure is too high, you can’t play in the game.” But Robinson insisted on playing and ignoring their advice.

He told the doctors, “I used to tell them, ‘Don’t check my blood pressure because I am playing regardless of what you say’…I thought I was young and invincible. I didn’t know it was going to catch up to me.” The doctors informed him his kidney could fail in his late 30s and he still decided to play the intense game.

In 2018, he got to know that his kidneys were failing. In October 2022, the world learned about his renal kidney failure diagnosis via X. He revealed his battles with the disease for the past 4 years and only shared them so other people could take strength from his story. But the situation has gotten worse ever since.

The current dire situation of Nate Robinson

Search for donors hasn’t quite gone to the plan for Robinson. His former Knicks teammate Jamal Crawford shared a video that addressed Robinson’s issue. The tweet revealed, “It’s a call to action. One of our most beloved hustlers of all time, Nate the Great Robinson, is in need of a kidney.” Crawford added a few words to this video, “All the posting we do about stuff that doesn’t matter. We need everyone with this one”.

 

It was not the first time when Crawford had asked for help for Robinson. Last month upon hearing the news about a Kidney transplant, Crawford took to his X account to quote a tweet from Legion Hoops. Urging and praying for Robinson, he wrote, “We have to get our brother a kidney ASAP.”

Nate Robinson urgently needs a donor with a blood type of A+ or O. Additionally, revelations were made that he would only survive a week or two without the dialysis machine.

Did Nate Robinson make another wrong decision in 2020?

Although the 5’9 point guard’s last NBA season was in 2015, he continued playing in other parts of the world until 2018. In 2018, he got to know that his kidneys were failing. Yet he challenged himself physically in another sport in 2020.

Robinson decided to fight a YouTube star competing in his third career boxing match and second as a professional. However, he lost the match against

Jake Paul to a second-round knockout. The fans didn’t know at the time that Robinson was struggling with health issues.

Even

Stephen A. Smith criticized the decision, saying, “But I do find myself scratching my head as to you knowing that you had full-blown kidney failure and you require dialysis. And somehow someway you got into a boxing ring in 2020 against a guy is big and is strong and dare I say is gifted as Jake Paul. What on Earth were you thinking, that is what enters my mind right now.”

Everybody currently is praying and hoping that Nate Robinson gets the help he is looking for. In his interview with the

Playmaker, he said, “One of the smallest guys to ever played a game amongst The Bigs to be an inspiration. I want people to understand that I’m a family man and I was sent, I was sent down to this earth to, to inspire.”