Ohio State basketball alums say their bond is stronger after kidney donation process

When you hear the words Buckeye Brotherhood, what comes to mind? For some it's cliche, for others it's an inspiration. For two former Buckeye basketball alumni, it's much, much more. Terrence Dials and JJ Sullinger, teammates during the early 2000s, joined Morning Edition Host Stu Osborne to discuss the health scare that drew them even closer together.

Stu Osborne: For those who have not heard the story, can each of you share your piece of it?

Terence Dials: So it started back probably nine to 10 years ago when I found out that my kidneys were in a bad way. I got referred to a nephrologist and I guess the plan was to kind of monitor my kidneys and make sure that I was doing everything I can to preserve what life I had left in my kidneys.

So that was probably about 10 years ago and here we are in the year 2026. I end up being in stage five, kidney disease. So I'm able to get on the kidney transplant list.

When you get on a kidney transplant list, you try to get on as many lists as possible. So I joined Ohio State's list and I joined Cincinnati's list. And at that point, they give you a link to send out to your friends and family to see if there's a potential donor in your sphere of friends and families.

I had two initial matches and the only reason why I knew I had matches because they were close to me: JJ and my brother. I don't know the process for for the donors, but probably after about two weeks. They knew that they were matches with me And at that point they had to go through a series of tests and to make sure that they're safe in order to donate.

JJ Sullinger: I think the most important part is, and the part I always like to point out, is I told T I was going to do this before I talked to my wife. And that's the only thing that I kind of regret. Not saying that she wasn't in support, because she was, she is. She loves T, she loves T's family, but I just wish I would have talked to her first before just jumping at something.

Anybody that knows me knows that that's probably how that was going to go anyway. I jumped at it and it was a process man and it took it took a while for me to get to the point where I was able I was going be able to donate.

Stu Osborne: The way you guys talk with each other and to each other, I mean, one would mistake you two for brothers. Now, obviously something like this brings you closer together. I mean you're literally connected. How does that relationship kind of go to the next level now that you have gone through this together?

Terence Dials: Well, it's funny because if you were to ask anyone in the city of Columbus, um, probably 90% of the time, if you see JJ, you're going to see me somewhere. Or you see me, you going to see JJ, that's kind of how it was when we were in college.

Obviously, some things that change as you get older, you get families and you don't go out as much. You don't hang out as much because life just takes over. But, we've been close for a very long time. And obviously as JJ likes to put it, this just cemented it.

JJ Sullinger: I think the unique thing about T and I's relationship is every day is Groundhog's Day, kind of. And I don't know if that makes sense to anybody, but it would make sense to T.

This isn't really going to change anything. This isn't going to make us any closer, because we were already close. This isn't going to define us, because we were already who we were to each other. You know what I mean? This is just an opportunity, this was literally an opportunity for me to help out my brother in need.

Stu Osborne: I am in my late 40s and I think you guys are probably, if I'm doing the math correctly, are right around that 40 year old Mark, what's your message to men when we get into our 40s just to, you know, we don't want to talk about our health. We don't want to talk about stuff we're going through, but how important is it for you to stay in tune with your body and what may or may not be going on?

Terence Dials: I'm glad you brought that up. For me, and this is the message that I want to send out, is get your yearly checkups, make sure that you're in tune with your body and knowing that there's an ache or pain or something not feeling right, you know, just go get it checked out.

I ended up finding out, you know I had kidney disease through happenstance. I was at Kroger with my daughters and they were using the blood pressure cuff while we were at the pharmacy. And they both put their arm in and got their readings and then they told me to do it. And at that point, I did it and they told to go to the hospital. So that's how high my blood pressure was at the time.

JJ Sullinger: And just to add to that, you know, like you said, man, we just, we got to be in tune with our bodies, but we got to talk about it too. You know what I mean?

Men, black men, especially, we, we try to battle things on our own and we try, you know, internalize things and just, you know, we're supposed to be strong. We're supposed to be, you know, not supposed to show signs of weakness and things like that.

Getting checked out and knowing what's going on in your body is not a sign of weakness. You know what I mean? And I think that, you know, I think this story really, really, you now, puts a microscope on that because, I mean, we both had to make some lifestyle changes in order for this to happen.

So, and we wouldn't have known about those, we wouldn't have known that we needed to make those changes without getting checked up and knowing what's going on, so it's important.