Legendary former NBA player Dwyane Wade revealed this week that he was diagnosed with a tumor in his kidney in 2023.

The 43-year-old Hall of Fame guard said that he opted for surgery on Dec. 18, 2023, and doctors had to remove 40% of a kidney.

“Thank God that I did do the surgery because the tumor was cancerous,” he said on his ‘The Why with Dwyane Wade’ podcast. “So, I have one kidney and I have another kidney that is 60%. They took 40% of my kidney to make sure they could get all of the cancer off of it, because if it sits there on your kidney, it spreads and now they got to take more and more.”

Wade said that had had gone years without a physical, but after his father battled prostate cancer, he decided to request a full-body physical.

He said he had also been dealing with cramps and urinary issues, and during the physical he said a scan revealed the tumor in his kidney. Wade said he spoke with another Miami Heat legend, Alonzo Mourning, prior to the surgery. Mourning had a kidney transplant in 2003 during his playing career.

“My own journey to have that surgery, I think it was the first time my family, my dad, my kids, they saw me weak,” he said. “That moment was probably the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life. The moments that I was by myself, I didn’t like. I was struggling. One thing you never want to do as a man, you never want your family to see you weak. It’s tough. Don’t want to be perceived as weak and you don’t want to be seen in your weak moments, but I had to. Fortunately for me, my family got in, they jumped in.

“I saw everybody show up for me, and be there for me in that process of my weakness,” he said. “I found strength in my family, in my friends, in my group.”

The three-time NBA champion and 13-time All-Star said the health scare has given him an new appreciation for life.

“That moment I went through that, I told myself before I went under anesthesia, when I was like ‘If I come out of this, if the Lord brings me out of this, I’m going to do things differently.’ And I came out of that and I’ve been doing things differently. I’ve been attacking life. I’m not waiting.”