Cleveland Cavaliers swingman Caris LeVert played in the 454th game of his NBA career in a 5,280-foot altitude Sunday during a 130-101 loss to the Denver Nuggets. While that contest was certainly forgettable for the Cavaliers, every game that LeVert plays has special meaning following successful kidney cancer surgery more than three years ago.
“Obviously, I’m grateful to still be playing basketball, to be honest with you,” LeVert told Andscape. “It was something that was superunexpected. It just gave me perspective as to how lucky I am to be doing this for a living.”
LeVert has averaged 14.1 points, 4.1 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game during his eight-year NBA career. The cousin of famed R&B singers Eddie and Gerald LeVert once scored a career-high 51 points against the Boston Celtics in 2022. LeVert was also scored more than 30 points in three games in the NBA bubble for the Brooklyn Nets in 2020 during the absence of stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
In 2021, LeVert was traded by the Brooklyn Nets to the Indiana Pacers in a blockbuster multi-player deal for NBA All-Star James Harden. As usual for any trade, LeVert had to get a physical exam once he arrived in Indianapolis before joining his new team on its road trip. Part of the Pacers physical was an MRI on his lower back, which wasn’t the norm for most NBA teams at that time.
On Jan. 16, 2021, the Pacers revealed in a statement that LeVert would be out indefinitely after an MRI revealed “a small mass on his left kidney during a physical.” Pacers president Kevin Pritchard added that the franchise “will support Caris through this time and know that he will join us on the court as soon as he is able.” The Pacers also decided not to nix the trade. On Jan. 25, 2021, LeVert had surgery to treat a renal cell carcinoma of his left kidney.
“The toughest day was probably the day after surgery. I got through it with the help of family and friends. I just knew that [the pain] wasn’t going to be forever,” LeVert said.
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No timetable was given for his debut with the Pacers after his surgery. Chemotherapy wasn’t needed and on March 13, 2021, LeVert returned to the court, debuting for the Pacers in the starting lineup against the Phoenix Suns. He had 13 points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes in Indiana’s 122-111 win. It was his first game in more than two months and he said afterward that he was fatigued.
While LeVert’s return was triumphant, it took a while for him to feel normal.
“It was hurting my energy more than anything else,” LeVert said. “There were a lot of days I didn’t feel like playing basketball. I lost a whole kidney. It was tough at first. It got a lot better …
“I just got to make sure I’m hydrated when I’m playing, before games, after games. That is the main thing.”
On Feb. 6, 2022, the Pacers traded LeVert, who was averaging 18.7 points, to the Cavs, who needed scoring. The Cavaliers re-signed LeVert to a two-year, $32 million contract in the summer of 2023. While LeVert is a proven starter, Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said that he told LeVert before last season that he was going to use him in a reserve role. LeVert’s response was a professional one — Bickerstaff said he was willing to do “whatever the team needed.”
As a reserve this season, LeVert has become a candidate for the 2024 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award. He entered Wednesday averaging 13.8 points, 5.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 54 games as a reserve and nine as a starter. On Wednesday, LeVert and the Cavaliers visit the Suns (ESPN, 10 p.m. ET).
“He’s been extremely important to us because of his versatility, his willingness to sacrifice and come off the bench because he’s an NBA starter,” Bickerstaff told Andscape. “It changes the dynamic of what we’re able to do with our second unit. His minutes versus second-unit guys typically gives us an advantage. He’s bought into being our best one-on-one defensive players. So, he helps us finish games because we can put him in and he can play both defensive and offensive lineups.
“He’s really bought into sharing the basketball. Again, for a guy who’s been a scorer for a lot of his career, he’s bought into being selfless and sharing the ball.”
LeVert’s kidney cancer is far from forgotten. Utah Jazz president Justin Zanik, who has polycystic kidney disease, was slated to undergo a life-saving kidney transplant on Tuesday. Looking forward, LeVert hopes that his story can motivate those facing health problems.
“I don’t necessarily look at it as why did it happen to me. [I] try to find the silver lining through it,” LeVert said. “If there is anything you can learn, it’s that you can learn from anything that happens to you. Just stay positive. [I] never let my situation get you down.”
It’s LeVert’s mentality and fight that Bickerstaff believes will benefit the Cavaliers as they try to solidify their spot in the Eastern Conference’s playoff seeding and make some noise in the postseason.
“It just speaks to who he is and the resilience and his ability to bounce back and fight through tough situations and find the good in it,” Bickerstaff said. “And I think that’s where he’s been a great leader for us because he’s been able to, in tough moments, he never quits, he never gives in, he just keeps fighting to keep trying to help us.”
