1. Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo was a Congolese-American professional basketball player.
65 Facts About Dikembe Mutombo
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Dikembe Mutombo played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association.
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Dikembe Mutombo played three seasons for Georgetown, establishing a reputation as a tenacious defender.
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Dikembe Mutombo received the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award four times, tied with Ben Wallace and Rudy Gobert for the most awards.
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Dikembe Mutombo led the NBA in blocked shots three times, led the league in rebounds twice, and was named to eight All-Star teams.
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Dikembe Mutombo was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
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Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo was born on June 25,1966, in Leopoldville, Democratic Republic of the Congo to Samuel and Biamba Marie Mutombo.
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Dikembe Mutombo's father worked as a school principal and then in Congo's department of education.
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Dikembe Mutombo spoke French, Spanish, Portuguese and five Central African languages including Lingala and Tshiluba.
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Dikembe Mutombo was a member of the Luba ethnic group.
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For high school, Dikembe Mutombo went to Boboto College in Kinshasa to lay the groundwork for his medical career as the classes were more challenging there.
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At about 16, Dikembe Mutombo decided to concentrate on his basketball career at the encouragement of his father and brother due to his height.
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Dikembe Mutombo moved to the United States in 1987 at the age of 21 to enroll in college.
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Dikembe Mutombo originally intended to become a doctor, but the Georgetown Hoyas basketball coach John Thompson recruited him to play basketball.
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Dikembe Mutombo spoke almost no English when he arrived at Georgetown and studied in the ESL program.
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Dikembe Mutombo was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year twice, in 1990 and in 1991.
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Dikembe Mutombo developed his signature move, in which he would celebrate every blocked shot by pointing his right index finger at the opposing player and moving it side to side, in 1992 as a way to become more marketable and gain product-endorsement contracts.
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Dikembe Mutombo quickly began to establish himself as one of the league's best defensive players, regularly putting up big rebound and block numbers.
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The next season, Dikembe Mutombo was selected for his second All-Star game and received the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.
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Denver failed to build on its success from the previous playoffs, as Dikembe Mutombo lacked a quality supporting cast around him.
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Bernie Bickerstaff, then the Nuggets' general manager, later said not bringing back Dikembe Mutombo was his biggest regret as GM.
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Dikembe Mutombo won Defensive Player of the Year both years, continuing to put up excellent defensive numbers with the Hawks.
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On December 14,1999, Dikembe Mutombo scored 27 points, on 11-for-11 shooting from the field, grabbed a season-high 29 rebounds and recorded a game-high six blocks to pull out the win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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One week earlier, Dikembe Mutombo played in the All-Star game; he led the game with 22 rebounds and three blocks.
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Dikembe Mutombo earned his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award that season.
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Dikembe Mutombo spent most of the season with a nagging wrist injury that limited him to 24 games.
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Dikembe Mutombo was generally unable to play in the playoffs, typically serving as a sixth man during the Nets' second consecutive Finals run, in which they lost to the Spurs in six games.
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Dikembe Mutombo chose to respond in kind after a referee told him that as long as the gesture was not directed at a particular player, the league would not punish him.
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Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo formed one of the NBA's most productive center combos.
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On March 2,2007, in a win over the Denver Nuggets at age 40, Dikembe Mutombo became the oldest player in NBA history to record more than 20 rebounds in a game, with 22.
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In midst of a 10-game winning streak at the time of Yao's injury, Dikembe Mutombo stepped in and helped the Rockets win 12 more games to complete a 22-game winning streak, then a team record.
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Dikembe Mutombo said that 2009 would be his "farewell tour" and his final season; he was the oldest player in the NBA in 2009.
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In Game 1 of Houston's first-round playoff series against Portland, Dikembe Mutombo played for 18 minutes and had nine rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
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Dikembe Mutombo announced his retirement on April 23,2009, after 18 seasons in the NBA.
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Dikembe Mutombo was among the top three players in Defensive Player of the Year voting for nine consecutive seasons from 1994 to 2002.
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Dikembe Mutombo blocked 3,289 shots; at the time of his death on September 30,2024, he was second all-time in blocked shots behind Hakeem Olajuwon.
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Dikembe Mutombo was an eight-time All-Star and was elected into three All-NBA and six All-Defensive Teams.
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Dikembe Mutombo received the Sager Strong Award on June 25,2018.
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Dikembe Mutombo met his wife, Rose, during a visit to Kinshasa in 1995.
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Harouna Dikembe Mutombo was the leading scorer at Western Carolina University for the Catamounts in 2009.
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Dikembe Mutombo was named Southern Conference Freshman of the Year; he later played professional basketball in Serbia.
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Dikembe Mutombo was selected in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft and signed a contract with the Los Angeles Clippers.
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Dikembe Mutombo played in the NBA for the Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics.
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Dikembe Mutombo witnessed the 2016 Brussels bombings at Brussels Airport on March 22,2016.
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On October 15,2022, Dikembe Mutombo's family announced that he was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor.
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On September 30,2024, Dikembe Mutombo died due to brain cancer in Atlanta at the age of 58.
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Dikembe Mutombo made a cameo appearance in the 2002 films Juwanna Mann and Like Mike, which mentioned his name in its theme song "Basketball".
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Dikembe Mutombo appeared in a GEICO auto insurance commercial in February 2013, parodying his shot-blocking ability by applying it to real world situations.
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Dikembe Mutombo created the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation to improve living conditions in his native Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997.
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Dikembe Mutombo's work earned him the NBA's J Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 2001 and 2009.
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Dikembe Mutombo paid for uniforms and expenses for the Zaire women's basketball team during the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta.
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Dikembe Mutombo was a spokesman for the international relief agency, CARE and was the first youth emissary for the United Nations Development Program.
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Dikembe Mutombo was a longtime supporter of Special Olympics and a member of the Special Olympics International Board of Directors, as well as a Global Ambassador.
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Dikembe Mutombo was a pioneer of Unified Sports, which brings together people with and without intellectual disabilities.
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Dikembe Mutombo played in the Unity Cup in South Africa before the 2010 World Cup Quarterfinal, along with South African President Jacob Zuma and Special Olympics athletes from around the world.
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Dikembe Mutombo's work has improved the health of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center is a model for the region.
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Likewise, Mr Dikembe Mutombo has been instrumental in the fight against polio by bolstering vaccination efforts and bringing treatment to victims of the disease.
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In 2020, the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation began construction of a modern pre-K through 6th-grade school in the Democratic Republic of Congo, named for his father, who died in 2003.
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Dikembe Mutombo was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater Georgetown University in 2010.
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Dikembe Mutombo received an honorary doctorate from Haverford College in May 2011.
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In 1997, the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation began plans to open a $29 million, 300-bed hospital on the outskirts of his hometown, the Congolese capital of Kinshasa.
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Dikembe Mutombo struggled to reassure some that he did not have any ulterior or political motives for the project.
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Dikembe Mutombo served on the board of trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, which is a museum dedicated to the US Constitution.
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In 2011, Dikembe Mutombo traveled to South Sudan as a SportsUnited sports envoy for the US Department of State.
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Dikembe Mutombo worked with Sam Perkins to lead a series of basketball clinics and team-building exercises with 50 youths and 36 coaches helping contribute to the State Department's mission to remove barriers and create a world in which individuals with disabilities enjoy dignity and full inclusion in society.