Greg Ostertag: the first NBA player to donate a kidney, and continue playing

Greg Ostertag was on KSL today (https://www.ksl.com/article/50665828/after-inconsistent-nba-career-former-jazz-center-greg-ostertag-is-living-the-dream) talking shop about his NBA career.

He admitted to driving fans crazy with his ‘inconsistent’ delivery.  It’s been 17 years since he played for the Utah Jazz, and people had their feelings.  But Ostertag is doing well and for the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho we couldn’t be more thrilled.  In 2002, Ostertag donated a kidney to save the life of his sister Amy (Hall) Ostertag, who was dying of complications from type 1 diabetes; upon his return he became the first player in NBA history to play after donating an organ. He has since been an advocate of organ donation.  While in Utah, he participated in a campaign which helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars through our Kidney Cars donation program which provided direct medical/financial assistance to Utah kidney patients.  So to us, Greg Ostertag will always be the best player in the NBA league.  We wish him well, and thank him for being an organ donor to his sister at a time it was still a relatively new idea.  He was courageous, he saved lives, he was unselfish.  AND, by the way….he played some basketball.