Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao didn’t realize the blood clot in his lower right lung was life-threatening until after surgery corrected the problem, the Cavaliers’ forward told Yahoo! Sports in his first interview since the health scare.

“I was having my best season, the best time of my life, and a week later I’m in the hospital and I could be dead,” Varejao said. “It’s crazy. I’m very lucky.”

“Then you start to think about it and realize that this is more serious than I thought. A week after the surgery I was at home thinking about how I could be gone right now.”

via Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports