| | SAN ANTONIO -- Sean Elliott in his decade-long NBA career
has endured season-ending leg injuries twice and an infamous trade
that shipped him to Detroit in exchange for Dennis Rodman.
Now Elliott embarks on his biggest basketball challenge yet -- a
history-making return to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday after a
kidney transplant.
|
 |
|
|
Tue, March 14
The Spurs are not sure what to expect from Sean Elliott. Nobody is under any illusion here. They don't know what he can do once he's on the floor and the adrenaline wears off. They don't know how long he can play. They are hoping he can give them something resembling what he did in the playoffs last season.
At the start it will be about 6-10 minutes per half. They will work him in gradually, let him get his legs and conditioning back. He has 19 games left, not a lot of time if you haven't gone through training camp. This really is his training camp. The Spurs are hoping by the playoffs that Elliott can give them lots of minutes and a lot of production.
Sean Elliott wanted to come back. He's been badgering the doctors and sneaking into practice. He's been practicing the for last five weeks and his teammates have been banging on him the last two weeks. They need him in the lineup at small forward. They've been playing Mario Elie there but they have not found a person for that spot that they like. Elliott opens up the floor with his shooting and that opens up the floor for guys like Tim Duncan and David Robinson.
|
|
|
As usual, the 32-year-old forward appeared cool and calm as the
Spurs' game against Atlanta approached. But that was on the
outside. On the inside, he admitted, he felt a few butterflies.
"You have to be a little nervous," Elliott said after sinking
3-pointers at the Spurs' shootaround Tuesday morning. "I'm really
trying to kind of relax and remind myself that I've played in a lot
of games."
For seven months Elliott has worked steadily toward his comeback
after receiving a kidney transplant from his older brother Noel on
Aug. 16.
He started out only able to walk gingerly after his surgery. He
gradually worked up to light conditioning exercises and finally
full contact practices with his teammates starting Feb. 2.
Along the way, he suffered setbacks. Perhaps the biggest was the
case of pneumonia he contracted in December that sent him back to
the hospital and caused him to have doubts about his return to
basketball.
Ultimately, though, Elliott said goodbye to the color
commentator job he'd been doing for Spurs television broadcasts
during his recovery and rejoined the defending champion Spurs.
"Seven months doesn't seem like a long time. I'm just pleased
that I've made it this far to be honest with you, especially (with)
the several speed bumps I went through to get here," Elliott said.
Elliott suffered from focal segmental glomerular sclerosis, a
disease that prevents the kidneys from properly filtering waste
from the blood. Elliott announced last July that he needed a
transplant or he faced the prospect of dialysis.
His brother Noel was a medical match, and the two underwent
surgery just two months after the Spurs had won the NBA title.
Doctors say the risk of injury to Elliott's new kidney -- positioned in his right pelvic area -- is minimal and that the
anti-rejection drugs he takes are not expected to hinder his play.
No other pro athlete in a major sport has returned to
competition after a kidney transplant.
Fellow Spurs players said what they saw of Elliott in practice
the past month proved to them he could come back.
"It's unbelievable," Tim Duncan said. "But the way he's
worked, to see him out here every day on the floor, that was one of
his goals. To see him achieve it is great."
|  | | Spurs forward Sean Elliott plans to play Tuesday, less than seven months after undergoing a kidney transplant. |
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said the team didn't go easy on
Elliott once he was given the OK to practice and said it was clear
how driven Elliott was to resume his playing career.
"He's obviously a true competitor and he's thought this through
with his family, with his physicians and he wants this badly,"
Popovich said.
Avery Johnson said the entire Spurs team may feed off the
"positive energy" Elliott's return will bring.
"It's great not just for basketball but for a lot of different
people who have been in situations like Sean," Johnson said.
"Just to see how he's going to give a lot of transplant patients
hope goes far beyond and transcends basketball."
Elliott has spent his entire pro career in San Antonio with the
exception of the 1993-94 season, when he was traded to Detroit for
Rodman. Elliott, long a fan favorite in San Antonio, was brought
back the following year.
Along with Elliott's family, friends and doctors, thousands of
fans headed to the Alamodome on Tuesday specifically to see him
play.
One of his most prominent supporters is Red McCombs, the current
owner of the Minnesota Vikings who owned the Spurs when Elliott was
drafted with the third overall pick in 1989. McCombs still has
Spurs season tickets, and he visited with Elliott on Monday at his
last hard practice before his return.
"I'm not the least bit surprised," McCombs said, reflecting on
all the injuries Elliott has overcome during his career, including
season-ending injuries and surgeries on each leg in 1997 and 1998.
Elliott's return after a kidney transplant is a "goose-bumpy
kind of a deal," McCombs said.
"It is a story that's far beyond sports. It is a story of
heart. It is a story of the medical greatness that we've got in
this country," McCombs said. "He will finish out his career as a
great player."
| |
ALSO SEE
 Lawrence: Elliott's return makes him a champ
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Sean Elliott says he put much thought into his decision to return.
wav
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Gregg Popovich would advise Elliott not to come back.
wav
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Dr. Francis Wright says chances of injury are slim.
wav
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Sean Elliott says there was no question he was going to come back.
wav
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Steve Kerr says Elliott still has his skills.
wav
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
 |
