Dikembe Mutombo died today at the age of 58 after a battle with brain cancer. Dikembe was an eight-time All-Star, four-time Defensive Player of the Year, three-time NBA blocks leader, and two-time NBA rebounds leader. In fact, he's second all-time in the league in career blocks. All of these on-court accomplishments may be impressive, but they are arguably overshadowed when compared to Dikembe's off-the-court philanthropic accomplishments. He will perhaps be remembered more as a humanitarian than a beloved professional basketball player.
Dikembe Mutombo was born on June 25, 1966, in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He attended Georgetown University on a United States Agency for International Development scholarship. When he arrived in the US, he spoke no English and had barely played basketball up to that point. He actually preferred soccer as a child. Perhaps thanks to his 7 foot 2 frame, basketball came naturally, and at Georgetown, he quickly became a fan favorite for his propensity to block shots.
At Georgetown, he studied medicine with the intention of becoming a doctor. And during his time in the nation's capital he also served as a summer intern, once for the United States Congress and once for the World Bank. In 1991, he graduated with bachelor's degrees in linguistics and diplomacy.
Dikembe Mutombo was drafted in 1991 by the Denver Nuggets. He was the 4th overall pick in the 1991 NBA draft. Upon being drafted, he signed a 5-year, $13.755 million contract that worked out to an average of $2.7 million per season.
During his professional career Dikembe soon became known for both his flailing elbows and wagging his finger after blocking a shot. Mutombo initially would point his finger at his opponent, and he received a technical foul each time he did, so he changed his process to wag his finger at the crowd. Not only did this move avoid a technical foul, it played to the crowd, getting the fans fired up and on Mutombo's side.
Dikembe went on to play 18 seasons in the NBA, earning $130 million in salary alone and tens of millions of dollars from endorsements. In the NBA, he played for the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks and Houston Rockets. He finished his career averaging 9.8 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per game over 18 seasons.
People who didn't see Mutombo play may recognize him from Geico commercials a few years back, where he callously rejected people shooting everyday items, like a crumpled-up piece of paper into a garbage can or a box of cereal into a shopping cart.
Humanitarian Efforts
In 1997, Mutombo started the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation. Troubled by seeing people needlessly losing their lives from curable diseases, Mutombo worked to improve living conditions in his home country.
In 1998, Dikembe's mother Biamba Marie died from the effects of a stroke at her home in Kinshasa. During her illness, he had been unable to her hospital care due to a government-enforced curfew. In reaction, Dikembe tapped his basketball and business connections to fund and built what became the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, a 300-bed facility to serve the poor in the area. The hospital cost $29 million to build. It opened in t2006 and Mutombo ultimately donated $15 million of his own money, and helped raise additional funds from fellow NBA and Georgetown centers Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning, among others. It was the first new hospital in the area in 40 years.
Back in 1994, Mutombo, Mourning, and Ewing took a trip to Cape Town, South Africa. Mutombo, who towered over the kids he spoke to, gave motivational speeches about achievement and built basketball courts. He continued touring Africa, speaking to youths to encourage positive social change in education, health and wellness and working to spread basketball's message, participating in the Basketball Without Borders NBA program in 2004 with other NBA stars. Mutombo has been a spokesman for the program ever since. During the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he paid for uniforms and expenses for the Zaire women's basketball team. In addition, Mutombo was a spokesman for the international relief agency, CARE, and was the first Youth Emissary for the United Nations Development Program.
Mutombo was also a longtime supporter of the Special Olympics. He was a member of the Board of Directors and a Global Ambassador. He was a pioneer of Unified Sports, bringing together those with and without intellectual disabilities.
In 2012, the Mutombo Foundation, partnering with Georgetown, began a new initiative that aims to provide care for visually impaired children in low-income families in the Washington, D.C., region.
Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images.
Mutombo's list of contributions and awards is seemingly endless: He was active with the Hughes Spalding Children's Hospital Christmas toy drive, Hosea Feed the Hungry, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank. He served on the Advisory Board for the Fogarty International Center at the Institutes of Health. He received the 32nd Annual Thurman Munson Award, the Big Brothers Big Sisters New York City Achievement in Public Service Award, the Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy, and the John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award. He was also a graduate of Leadership Atlanta 2014. In 2011, Mutombo was awarded the Goodermote Humanitarian Award from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health "for his efforts to reduce polio globally as well as his work improving the health of neglected and underserved populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo."
While at Georgetown, Mutombo had initially wanted to become a doctor, but his coach John Thompson, encouraged him to pursue a basketball career. Thompson said Mutombo could save and impact lives in a different way, and Mutombo has taken advantage, investing more than $200 million in social innovation to improve health and literacy, and is striving to end human and sex trafficking in both Africa and America.
Unfortunately, Dikembe Motombu died on September 30, 2024, at the age of 58, after a battle with brain cancer. Truly a remarkable human being who lived one of the best lives ever. Rest in peace.
