Mending on the rebound

Eight months after transplant, Spurs' Elliott back in the game

By Carol Lin
CNN Newsstand

SAN ANTONIO -- He was on 40 medications but now he's down to three. The potential side effects are diabetes, muscle tears, and tremors. Less than eight months after a kidney transplant, Sean Elliott is back and healthy, playing at the highest levels of one of the most physically demanding sports.

"When we were in training camp in October," says teammate Steve Kerr, "he was out there shooting jump shots on the side. The next month he was running stadiums up here in the dome."

While most kidney transplant patients go on to resume relatively normal lives, Elliott is a professional basketball player. No one, not even the Spurs' team doctor knows what, if anything, limits Elliott's potential to recover his game.

"I'm the team physician and so I had to kind of look around and say has anybody done this before, and low and behold, no they hadn't," said Dr. David Schmidt. "I mean, no professional basketball player has ever done this."

What Elliott is doing is nothing short of amazing. He's the first professional athlete with an organ transplant to return to play, currently averaging 14 points in the playoffs, but he's a player who knows how to hide his pain.

Looking at Sean Elliott a year ago during the NBA playoffs, fans would never know his blood pressure was soaring, he was nauseous and bedridden during the day. He was in near-kidney failure. Only after the Spurs won the league championship was Elliott's secret revealed.

Elliott, 32, remembers when his medical condition was made public by the hospital.

"You know, the doctor announced I needed a kidney transplant and the whole room gasped," Elliott said. "Instantly, I was just terrorized. I was just scared."

That's when it hit him, and his family rallied together.

"Everybody was willing to step forward and donate if they had the opportunity," he said.

His older brother Noel was his match. Both brothers faced a life-changing operation at turning points in their personal lives. Noel had just gotten married and was starting a new life. Sean and his wife of six years had just separated, and she moved out of state with their infant daughter.

On August 16, nearly two months after the NBA championship game, doctors transplanted Noel's kidney into Sean's pelvic region in an area protected by overlying bone and muscle. Doctors kept his two failing organs in place, a fairly standard procedure.

Then just seven months later on March 14 of this year, Elliott returned to the game. And his brother Noel was in the stands to cheer him on.

At games end, Sean went in to the stands to hug Noel. It wasn't quite the emotional outburst that some people expected to see between siblings. Sean said there was a reason for that.

"You know, we're the type that we don't have to show our emotion in front of 20,000, 30,000 people for it to be genuine," Sean Elliott said. "We had a great talk that night after the game, when it was just him and me alone. We just sat there and couldn't believe the circumstances."

So what was the "talk" when Sean found out that Noel was a match?

"He was at work and my typical self, I just tried to play a joke on him, like I always do," said Sean. "(I) changed my voice and just kind of joked with him for a little bit."

Noel picks it up from there. "Yeah, and then I hear something like, 'Hello! Hello!' I figure out it is Sean and he starts laughing. And shortly after that, he gets serious and tells me I am a match."

Sean explains that his brother knew what was needed.

"I never came out and asked him," he said. "You know, 'Will you get tested.' or 'Can I have one of your kidneys if you're a match?' It just, it was unspoken."

From Noel's standpoint, there was never any doubt on what he would do.

"It's just something I would do for either one of my brothers," he said. "I just don't feel like it is a heroic thing to do."

Odiemae Elliott recalls when the close bond between her two sons began.

"When Sean was born, Noel took him on as his," Odiemae Elliott said. "He used to fight off anybody else who tried to touch him."

At 62, Odiemae savors every slam dunk Sean makes, every moment she can spend with her sons. And she knows Sean is not out of the woods yet.

"Noel is fine, but Sean still has a long way to go," she says with caution.

Sean is also aware of his medical situation.

"I'm reminded every day because I have to take medication," he says. "And I just try to take care of my body better. I appreciate that people are concerned about me. I really do. But I'm not that fragile. If I thought there was that chance, that realistic chance of me losing my kidney because I took an elbow from somebody, why would I be out there?"

And Noel couldn't agree more because, "He knows I only have one kidney left and I don't have a spare to give him so he is going to take care of this one."

Dr. Francis Wright of the Texas Transplant Institute at Methodist Specialty Transplant Hospital in San Antonio performed Sean's operation. He said kidney transplant patients don't have to live behind closed doors in order to survive.

"We've done about 1,500 transplants here at our center, and I can't recall a single kidney that has been lost due to an accident," Dr. Wright said. "And patients drive cars, ride motorcycles. There are a lot of active people out there with transplants doing a lot of things that's maybe more dangerous than pro basketball."

The greatest danger may be the chance of a relapse since doctors are not sure what causes the condition that attacked Sean's kidneys. And even though Sean's low-key style got him labeled soft, he's still hanging tough.

According to the team profile, Sean's three favorite movies are Shawshank Redemption, Aliens and Silence of the Lambs. What do these three movies have in common?

"They're just about overcoming or just facing something that's insurmountable," answers Sean.

But now that the operation is complete and Sean is playing ball again, does Noel ever think that his brother owes him for his gift of life?

"No, no, I mean just like, Sean playing is payback," he said. "Just knowing that my brother's well is enough for me."

And, big star or not, little brother would return the favor.

"There's no question I would have done it," says Sean. "I can do other things, if I had to play without. Or if I couldn't play because I was donating a kidney, I could do other things. And you can replace basketball. But you can't replace your family."

So if Sean could write the final chapter to this whole experience, what would he write? What would he say when he says goodbye to the court?

"I don't know," he answered. "I don't want it to be dramatic. I just want to be able to step away kind of quietly. That probably won't happen."

Not now.

"I just want to step away really on my own terms and just know that I did the best that I could. I couldn't ask any more of myself."