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I was pretty bad. When I first was diagnosed with kidney failure, my function - the function of my kidney was less than 8 percent.

I don't think I'm unusual in that, in my 20s, like many people, I felt invincible.

I was diagnosed with hypertension when I was 24, and I battled hypertension for about 10 to 12 years, and then I went to the doctor for something else, and he found that I had high levels of protein in my urine, and that's how I found out I had kidney disease.

It was in 2003 that I realised there was no choice but to have dialysis treatment - by the time of the World Cup that year, I could barely walk. A year later, I finally had a kidney transplant.

I'm a prime example of the way kidney disease strikes silently.

I don't think of myself as being invincible anymore.

If I would have listened to other people back in 2000 telling me I should have stopped playing basketball because of a kidney disease, I wouldn't have won a world championship.

I believed I was invincible.

I know that I'm very lucky to be alive. For 35 or 40 years I've spilt my blood and broke my bones and spent years in hospitals.

I was invincible, at least that's what I wanted you to think, and I wanted me to think it, too.