The NBA player saved from cancer thanks to a transfer

LeVert, in the game between Brooklyn and Denver on January 12, 2021.SARAH STIER / AFP

Caris LeVert's life took a much bigger turn than he might suspect on January 13 when he was part of the four-way trade that made James Harden's move from Houston to Brooklyn possible.

It was one of the transfers of the season, a change of cards that modified the ecosystem that had prevailed until that moment in the NBA.

The Nets, with the stellar trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Harden, multiplied their title options overnight, held by the Lakers.

LeVert would not have wanted to leave the Nets, the team where he began his fifth NBA season.

However, he had no choice but to accept the axiom of a League in which you cannot pay for transfers, but where the franchises have absolute freedom to send players from one place to another.

LeVert (Columbus, Ohio, 26 years old) did not know that this transfer was going to be providential for them to detect kidney cancer.

Nothing had made him suspicious.

He had played every Nets game this season normally, and the day before the trade he spent 26 minutes on the court and added 20 points against Denver.

That agreement, on January 13, between Brooklyn, Houston, Cleveland and Indiana, sent LeVert to this last team, precisely the one that selected him in 2016 in the 20th place of the

, but that immediately changed him for Thaddeus Young with the Nets.

The medical examination after the transfer two weeks ago, more thorough than the routine ones, detected the carcinoma that suffered his left kidney.

“I had no symptoms.

I had not missed a game.

I felt 100% healthy, ”LeVert said.

“The change of equipment allowed to see what was happening to my body.

From that point of view, I think that the transfer has been able to save my life in the long term ”.

He was operated on Tuesday by Dr. Jason Sprunger at Community Hospital North in Indianapolis.

Doctors indicated that no further treatment will be necessary.

"Obviously, I want to play as soon as possible," said the new Pacers guard before undergoing surgery.

“I am a competitor;

I love playing.

But the most important thing is to ensure my good health.

When I can play again is not what worries me the most at this time.

Injuries and difficult situations

LeVert's career, despite two major injuries, has been upward.

The Nets renewed his contract in August 2019 for three seasons and $ 52.5 million, 43.3 million euros.

During the previous season and the first 12 games of this one, he averaged almost 19 points, more than four rebounds and almost six assists.

In the absence of Durant and Irving, he started.

And Steve Nash, the Nets coach, said he could play a role similar to Manu Ginobili this season when the forward triumphed as the sixth man for the Spurs.

The new Pacers player has been through very difficult situations in his life.

He was 15 years old when his father, Darryl Sr., 46, died of heart failure.

Caris and her younger brother Darryl discovered it at their home in Pickerington, Ohio.

LeVert's mother, Kim, suffers from multiple sclerosis.

"I try to get the positive out of every situation," says LeVert.

“If they knew my mom, they would never guess that she has this disease.

It is very special.

I have a lot of faith in God.

I know that not everything is perfect, but in life, the important thing is how you react to what happens to you ”.