Dikembe Mutombo, Hall of Famer and global basketball ambassador, was ‘larger than life’

In March 2022, there were a lot of Senegalese people eager to get home while standing outside a John F. Kennedy International Airport gate along with Africa’s beloved native son, who was eager to spread the gospel of the NBA even further. His name was Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo.

And before the 7-foot-2 native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo boarded a needed first-class seat to Dakar, Senegal, he took every picture, signed every autograph and engaged in every “No, no, no … ” finger wave on video that was asked of him with a smile and no hint of irritation. While Mutombo may have been the most intimidating NBA shot blocker, his biggest impact was as a gentle giant and humanitarian. The Basketball Hall of Famer unselfishly made his native Africa and the entire world a better place before he died from brain cancer Monday at age 58.

“I came to the point to understand that I’m not living in this world by myself,” Mutombo told Andscape in 2022 in Dakar while attending Basketball Africa League games. “I live in a world surrounded by people of different culture, different languages, people who come from different places and different islands. I don’t go and look for who’s Congolese, who’s African.

“I just look for people that are there. And I come to this point to say, what kind of investment are we making to ensure that the future generation have all the tools necessary that will carry them onto the next chapter of their life?”

Mutombo arrived in Washington in 1987 to attend Georgetown University with hopes of becoming a doctor. With tutelage from legendary Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson, Mutombo became surgical in his ability to block shots in college and during 18 NBA seasons. The eight-time NBA All-Star was second in NBA history in blocked shots (3,289), only behind fellow African Hakeem Olajuwon. The four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year also had his No. 55 jersey retired by the Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Hawks.

Nuggets fans will never forget the visual of Mutombo, eyes closed and smiling, holding the ball over his head and lying flat on the floor after upsetting the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of the 1994 NBA playoffs. NBA fans will never forget Mutombo’s signature finger wag after he blocked shot after shot after shot. And young NBA fans may be most familiar with Mutombo blocking everything in a hilarious GEICO commercial.

For NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Mutombo was bigger than basketball, too.

“Dikembe Mutombo was simply larger than life,” Silver said in a statement. “On the court, he was one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in the history of the NBA. Off the floor, he poured his heart and soul into helping others.”

Mutombo was also named the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award winner twice for “outstanding service and dedication to the community.” And if there was one person who Mutombo loved and credited for opening his door to help Africa and the world, it was NBA commissioner David Stern. Stern’s help, ideas and resources were instrumental in Mutombo’s humanitarian and basketball efforts in Africa.

After the Nuggets selected Mutombo with the fourth overall pick in the 1991 NBA draft, Stern pulled him aside and said that he wanted them to make a trip to Africa together. The two built a father-son type of relationship shortly after. Mutombo, Stern and other NBA players met anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1993 as part of a tour of Africa. Stern always had a global vision for the NBA and picked Mutombo as the league’s first global ambassador in 2009.

In 2022, Mutombo told me a story about how Stern helped him in a stunning way after his father died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mutombo said his family wanted to have a funeral for his father there, but it was difficult because there was a civil war going on. Mutombo was told it was unsafe for him to attend such an event at that time. Mutombo, however, said Stern was amazingly able to use his deep African and world connections to negotiate a ceasefire for several hours to allow the funeral to take place and for his brother to take a private boat to attend. Mutombo strongly said several times that this was a true story.

“I believed Stern back then because he had the capacity and the knowledge to make things happen,” Mutombo said of Stern to Andscape in 2022. “He was a very smart man who wanted to rule the continent. I’m so happy that our commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum [are] following [in Stern’s] footsteps very well. They are committed to the promise David made to see the continent shine.”

In 1996, Mutombo paid the expenses for the Congo women’s national basketball team’s trip to the Olympic Games in Atlanta and bought their uniforms. In 1997, he established the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, “whose mission is to improve the health, education and quality of life for the people in the Congo.” Mutombo opened a $29 million hospital in 2009 near the Congo’s capital city of Kinshasa, where 7.5 million people live in poverty and more than 1 million have already received care. Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, named in the memory of Mutombo’s mother, has treated more than 200,000 people, according to Georgetown.

Mutombo promoted basketball globally through Basketball Without Borders, which has included camps in Africa, and played in the 2015 NBA Africa Game and attended the game in 2018. In 2020, the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation began construction on an elementary school in Congo and through Mutombo Coffee, he sourced beans from African coffee farms from participants in its Women in Coffee Initiative.

“My dad is my hero because he simply cared. He remains the purest heart I have ever known,” Mutombo’s son Ryan said on Instagram. “At times, I thought of my dad as a super-human. The child in me would sigh to hear that this was never actually the case. My dad was a regular man who would stop at no lengths to honor the world, its people, and its creator. He loved others with every ounce of his being. That’s what made him so accessible. That’s what made him real.”

Mutombo is the biggest reason the BAL exists today.

Mutombo was very emotional during 2019 All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, when Silver announced the arrival of the BAL. Mutombo told Andscape that he was the first to push Silver to create the BAL. The BAL will begin its fourth season in 2025 with the guidance of Mutombo’s close friend, BAL president Amadou Fall. And before Mutombo became ill, he was a regular at BAL games and even danced enthusiastically with a Senegalese band and fans after a game in 2022.

The BAL is already paying dividends. In July, the Toronto Raptors drafted center Ulrich Chomche of Cameroon, the Jazz signed rookie forward Babacar Sane of Senegal to an Exhibit 10 contract in August and in April Duke University signed center Khaman Maluach of South Sudan.

“We did this because players like Dikembe pointed to the opportunity that existed, not just in basketball, but the sports industry throughout the continent,” Silver told Andscape in 2017. “He and I have been there together at least four times since I’ve been commissioner. And through conversations with FIBA and local ministers of sport, we realize that there is enormous opportunity to continue to grow the game [in Africa].”

Mutombo told Andscape in 2017, “We were trying to find a way to grow the game on the continent. Now, the commissioner made it happen with the league. No more just going and playing a [exhibition] game. This is great.”

Olajuwon is unquestionably the greatest basketball player to come out of Africa. Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo are two African stars in the NBA now who are catching up with him. Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri and Fall will continue opening the doors for more Africans to learn the game and find their way to the NBA as well.

But when it comes to being the godfather of African basketball, there is no question who that giant is: Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo.

“I’m sorry. It’s a tough one,” Ujiri said while fighting tears at Raptors media day Monday. “I have to say, though, that guy, he made us who we are. That guy is a giant. An incredible person. Who are we without Dikembe Mutombo? Not possible. It really is not. I went to Dikembe Mutombo’s hometown with him. I went to his hospital. You have no idea what that guy means to the world.”

Embiid said during the Sixers’ media day Monday: “It’s a sad day, especially for us Africans, and really the whole world, because other than what is accomplished on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court.”