Heat director of team operations Rob Pimental waiting on organ transplants, but still working
Rob Pimental isn’t used to relying on someone else. As the Miami Heat’s director of team operations, he’s usually the one getting things done for others.
But as he continues to sit on the transplant list in need of a new kidney and pancreas, he’s left in a position that he’s not accustomed to being in.
“I think the biggest thing for me is it’s OK to ask for help, and I was never that person,” Pimental admitted. “I always wanted to make sure it was taken care of and done. But now having to have to rely on so many other people to do certain things, not just work but personal things, I think that’s also something that I’ve had to learn.”
Pimental has been forced to learn that lesson, as he has been a Type 1 diabetic for 30 years and found out last summer that his kidneys were failing. He has been on dialysis since July and has been on the transplant list for the two organs he needs since December.
This has been Pimental’s reality for nearly a year. He gives himself dialysis twice a day, oftentimes doing it while he works in his office at Kaseya Center as he waits for the call that his new organs are ready.
“For the first time in my life in my professional career and even personally, I’ve had to take one day at a time,” Pimental, 49, said. “I’m not used to that because I was usually the person that always had to be ten steps ahead. And for the first time in my life, I’m taking one day at a time. But the nice thing about that is I’m getting a lot more enjoyment out of each day now because the little things I may have taken for granted at work, I don’t take for granted anymore.”
Basketball Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning, who is one of the Heat’s all-time great players and now the team’s vice president of player programs, helped Pimental find that positive attitude amid his challenging situation.
Mourning has been through all of this before, as he needed a life-saving kidney transplant in 2003.
“He’s one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met in my life,” Pimental said of Mourning. “He didn’t have to take me under his wing. He’s there 24-7. If I need something, I can call him at 11 at night and he would answer the phone and he’ll give me the truth. Good or bad, he’ll walk me through the steps. He’s definitely made things a lot easier for me, in general.”
Any question or concern Pimental has, he goes to Mourning. And Mourning is always there to provide the sense of clarity that Pimental needs.
“I just wanted to provide some comfort, some support, some confidence that he could get through this,” Mourning said. “And help him understand that the body follows the mind. My strategy throughout the whole ordeal, before I even got my transplant, I knew that if I kept my mind clear and positive and unclouded, then the body would follow that and get me through it. And also my faith, and understanding that God didn’t bring me this far just to bring me this far.
“I just encourage Rob to keep going, keep fighting. Continue your daily stuff. Make the adjustments you need to make in your diet and exercise and what have you to maintain dealing with your situation a little bit better.”
Pimental also credits current and former Heat players for helping him throughout his ongoing ordeal. Former Heat players Kevin Love and Kyle Lowry have been in constant contact with Pimental.
“I talk to them quite regularly,” said Pimental, who’s married and has two kids. “It’s never like the same conversation. It’s funny. It’s just Kevin calling me to tell me a joke or Kyle checks on me all the time. I talk to Kyle quite a bit, and it’s just to text here and there, a phone call here and there. But it’s nice. Those two, they’ve become really close.”
Pimental just finished his 15th season with the Heat. Along the way, he was named NBA Equipment Manager of the Year in 2022 and has become known for doing it all behind the scenes.
From booking the team’s travel to taking care of equipment needs, Pimental considers himself to be almost a “concierge service” for Heat players.
“Rob is a glue guy,” Mourning said. “He really is. Behind the scenes, he’s keeping stuff together.”
Pimental is still doing a lot even while giving himself dialysis twice a day and dealing with everything else he has going on away from work. The biggest difference in his day-to-day work life this past season was that he couldn’t travel with the team.
“I’ve been pretty much good enough to do pretty much everything except go on the road, which is kind of the toughest part for me just because you feel disconnected from the team at times,” Pimental said. “But the guys have been really good. The staff and players have been really good to still keep me involved.
“But it was nice to be home with the kids. I have a 6- and a 7-year-old, and a wife. It was really nice to be around and be able to do some of the things I’ve never really got to do before unfortunately just because of the situation. But yeah, on the other hand I still miss the part that I’ve just become accustomed to my entire life.”
For Heat players, coaches and staff members, they’re just grateful that Pimental is around and doing his usual work from Miami.
“We’ve all just kind of wanted to rally around him,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We support him as much as possible, but also we let him know, one, we love him, and two, we really appreciate everything that he does and that he’s still able to do it, despite everything.”
The appreciation is mutual between the Heat and Pimental.
“I’ve been lucky enough in my career to have my dream job for over 30 years,” Pimental said. “I’ve been able to grow professionally from this organization. They’ve been very supportive of me all the way through, and obviously I thank coach [Pat] Riley and Spo and Andy [Elisburg] and Nick Arison, and everybody involved. Especially Alonzo, I owe him everything right now just because he’s walked me through all these steps that I had questions or had concerns. He’s walked me through things and got me going in the right direction, and helped me through a lot of this stuff.”
Pimental doesn’t know when the call he’s waiting for will come. But he makes sure to stay in South Florida to remain close to the hospital for whenever he’s told his organs are awaiting him.
“I just think I’ve learned that I’m way stronger than I ever would have thought,” he said. “And I just think the way I look at things now — the little things that I used to maybe get stressed out about, I’m not as stressed out about anymore because everything doesn’t have to be perfect to be perfect. I always thought everything had to be perfect, but everything doesn’t have to be perfect to be perfect. And I’m living example of that. I can live with this. I am living with it.”
