Waiting for kidney and pancreas transplants, Heat equipment manager remains focused on work

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MIAMI (AP) — Rob Pimental is standing at his desk inside his office, getting through what'll be another 12-hour day. The Miami Heat director of team operations is staring at an oversized computer screen, typing away on a flight plan, a half-eaten bowl of salad to the left of his keyboard.

An IV stand on wheels is set up behind him. On the floor, a clear bag holds dialysis fluid.

“Hey, don't mind that,” he says to a visitor, as he nods toward the tubing and bag at his feet.

This has been Pimental's reality for nearly a year now. He's been a Type 1 diabetic for about 30 years, and last spring his health took a serious turn — his kidneys began failing and, probably for a variety of reasons, his blood pressure was soaring. He's been on a transplant list for months, awaiting both a new kidney and pancreas.

The call might come this week. It might come next year. Nobody knows.

“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.”

April is National Donate Life Month, and it hits particularly close to home for the Heat. Alonzo Mourning, one of Miami's all-time great players, a Hall of Famer and the team's vice president for player programs, needed a life-saving kidney transplant in 2003. He's been an invaluable resource for Pimental throughout this process.

“That’s a big thing, having Zo around me all the time," Pimental said. “He’s been through this and just to have him come in and walk me through some steps I didn’t understand and then just be there if I have a question, it means something. Sometimes he walks in and he’s like, ‘Man, you look good today. You good? You feeling good? You look good.’ That means a lot, because he knows what I'm going through.”

Pimental — one of the league's longest-tenured equipment managers — wasn't on the plane that carried the Heat to the play-in tournament on Monday. He hasn't been able to fly with the team this season, which is the biggest change to the way he's handled the job that he's had in Miami for 15 years.

He gives himself dialysis twice a day and relies on the help of other Heat staffers and people he oversees probably more than ever before — along with constant comic relief from former Heat players Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love, who check in on Pimental all the time — but he's still finding a way to make it work.

“It's meant a lot because he's meant so much to us, as a mentor, as someone we look up to, as someone who has put so many years into this league,” said locker room manager Marvin Ulysse, who reports directly to Pimental. “I felt like it was our duty to get him through this journey. He's a big brother to us. We're like his human dialysis in a way.”

Pimental hasn't missed a beat, even though he can't travel. When problems pop up, he handles them from home. He still works long days — but has also appreciated being around his wife and children more than he has in the past.

That said, there are scary times. He often wakes up in the middle of the night and grabs at his phone, fearful that he's missed the call telling him that organs are awaiting him. The unknown is stressful. He's worried about what'll happen to his kids if something happens to him.

Each day, he said, brings hope.

“Dialysis is working, I’m still here,” Pimental said. “Just like somebody said to me awhile back, you've got to learn how to string as many good days together as you can so when that one bad day comes, you can handle it. And that, I think, is what we’re doing right now. The Heat have been very, very supportive throughout this whole thing. But to be honest, the only motivation I need is my wife and my kids. To be here for them, that’s the only motivation I ever needed.”

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