It’s been 24 years since Noel Elliott gave brother Sean a kidney, a 160-gram gift that inspired organ donations and saved who knows how many lives.
Courtesy / Elliott Family
Sean went from near-dead to soaring San Antonio Spur. On March 14, 2000, Sean threw down a one-handed dunk in the Alamodome, becoming the first pro athlete to return to a major sport after a kidney transplant. Noel went from anonymous stock clerk to acclaimed role model. The National Kidney Foundation honored him with a “Gift of Life Award.” Sean became the foundation’s spokesperson and elevated kidney disease awareness. One year later, the U.S.
freshman. A doctor told him he’d never play again. After surgery, Sean kept playing and re-injured the knee twice. His mother told doctors Sean would not quit hooping, so he was fitted with a knee brace. In the fall of 1983, Sean and Noel returned to Cholla High School, but this time, for the first time, as varsity teammates. Little brother had talked big brother into playing. “You’re better than most of those guys,” Sean told him. “You should try out.
People called him the most famous kidney donor in America, but Noel did not understand the fuss. When he arrived for Sean’s first game after the transplant, TV cameras filmed him walking into the Alamodome. When 26,708 people began chanting his name, he could not comprehend why. “It was surreal,” he says. “It was crazy. I mean, I’m just Sean’s brother.”
Sean Elliott follows through on his game-winning 3-point shot against the Portland Trail Blazers in the final seconds of Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on Memorial Day 1999.Miracle: That’s the Biblical term used to describe Sean’s off-balance, tippy-toe 3-pointer over the long, outstretched arm of Rasheed Wallace on Memorial Day. The word also fits his life. His basketball career was supposed to be over before he played his first junior varsity game. A torn ACL.
When Sean was traded back to the Spurs in 1994, he hid the kidney disorder from teammates. Most adults with minimal change disease achieve remission. Sean expected the same: “I thought, ‘Any day now, I might get better and it will go away.’” It got worse. Deep into the Spurs’ 1999 playoff run, doctors were checking Sean’s blood pressure before and after games. “I was concerned,” he says. “I thought this might be my last go-around. But this was something I’d worked so hard for.
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