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One-on-One Spurs' Elliott discusses his recovery progress
Posted: Wednesday February 23, 2000 06:30 PM
CNNSI.com's Inga Hammond recently sat down with Sean Elliott to talk about his recovery from a kidney transplant. Inga Hammond: How do you feel right now, mentally and physically? Sean Elliott: I feel good, actually, on both counts. Physically, I'm getting in very good shape. I've been running a lot, lifting weights. You name it. Playing a little ball here and there. I'm just waiting to go full-speed at practice. And that ties in to how I feel mentally, because I feel so well physically, it just carries over. I'm in a good state of mind, and I'm raring to go. Hammond: If you had your way, when would you see game action? And if your head coach, Gregg Popovich, had his way, when do you think he'd put you in a game? Elliott: I can't speak for Pop, [but] I can speak for myself. As soon as I feel that I can contribute. Really, I don't want to disturb the chemistry of the team. Hopefully, I want to try to enhance his [Popovich] chemistry. I want to come out and be in reasonably good shape, basketball shape, and I want to be able to contribute. If I can do that, then I will step on the court and I will be ready to play. Hammond: How hard has it been for you watching, especially with the recent struggling period, not to be in there, not to be helping out? Elliott: It's been tough, but at the same time, I've been preparing myself for it. It wasn't like the last years, when I had knee surgery, and those kind of blind-sided me. Last season I knew coming down the stretch that I wasn't going to start the season on time. So I knew there was going to be an extended period of time that I was going to sit out, so I mentally prepared myself to sit out and watch the team, regardless if they won or lost. Hammond: Some of your coaches and teammates have expressed a concern about your returning to the game. Do you understand their concerns, or does it get a little frustrating that it seems like they're trying to hold you back from returning? Elliott: I'm frustrated in the sense in that we need to let go of these old myths and conceptions of what could happen to me out on the playing field. When I first announced that I was going to have a transplant, a lot of people were saying, "Well, he's going to have to wear some protective gear. What happens if he gets hit in his kidney?" Those aren't the risks involved in coming back and playing. Those are really unfounded. The things I have to worry about are drinking enough liquids, staying properly hydrated and not worrying about if somebody elbows me in the kidney. A lot of people still don't know where my kdiney is. They think it's in my back. So people who are saying all those things and have those concerns really are not up to date on all the truths. Hammond: When you do come back you will be the first-ever to come back from an organ transplant and actually play a professional sport. Is there almost a sense of wanting to do it for other people who have to go through this to prove that it can be done? Elliott: Absolutely there is. First, for me, I want to continue to play and resume my career if I want to. And maybe not for an extended peiod of time. I don't know how long I'm going to play, but I would like to play for myself. And, secondly, for a lot of those people out there who go through transplants and face adversity on a day-to-day basis. I think a lot of people could take an example from it and maybe find some hope. Hammond: Some people would say if you were 24, hadn't won a championship ... But you've had the 10-year career; you've got the ring. You won it last year. You've proved every critic that you've ever had wrong. Why come back? Elliott: What if you posed the same question to Michael Jordan or Reggie Miller or Magic Johnson? I'm not comparing myself to those guys, but all those guys, and a lot of guys in the league, have the same thing. They have a competitive nature, a competitive spirit that it's hard to kill. A lot of guys would take that challenge. And I'm looking forward to it. I think it's a challenge that, if it's met and surpassed, could not only inspire me but a lot of people. Hammond: How about your mom and your brother? How do they feel about it? Do they want to see you back out on the court? Elliott: They'd love it. They'd be thrilled. I talked to my mom, and I asked her, "What would you want me to do?" And she said, "Whatever makes you happy." I talked to my brother. My brother, from day one, he said, "When you get back out on the court ..." I didn't have to ask him, "What do you think about me coming back?" He was gung-ho about me coming back a long time ago.
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