Dikembe Mutombo’s reach was always destined to be global,
canvassing far more of the world than the paint he patrolled for 18
seasons in the NBA.
From the moment he was drafted by the Denver Nuggets with the
fourth overall pick in June of 1991, Mutombo had designs on
something greater. Somehow, he’d give back to his native
Democratic Republic of Congo, or honor his parents, who harnessed
in him a love for science, or teach a younger generation how to
tend to future ones.
Maybe, with his irrepressible energy and his infectious
personality, he’d accomplish them all.
“There’s an old proverb from the African continent that says
that when you take the elevator to go up, you always got to make
sure that you send the elevator down so it can take the other
people,” Mutombo told The Post in a wide-ranging interview this
week. “My way of sending the elevator down was go back home and
try to see how many lives can I touch.”
Mutombo bellows his deep, hearty laugh when he thinks about the
number of organizations and boards he’s affiliated with.
There’s the CDC, UNICEF, Special Olympics, Basketball Without
Borders and his role as the NBA’s first global ambassador.
That’s in addition to the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, which was
founded in 1997 and built the Biamba Marie Mutombo hospital in
honor of his late mother a decade later. A K-12 school, dedicated
to his father and focused on science and entrepreneurship, is
scheduled to open next year near Kinshasa, the capital of the
DRC.
Even though Mutombo’s native DRC hasn’t been crushed by
COVID-19 cases (69 deaths as of Friday), he brims with excitement
that his foundation is helping to feed frontline workers and taking
on other local initiatives.
“We serve lunch and dinner to four hospitals with more than 80
doctors and nurses, which was great,” he said. “I’m glad that
we took those initiatives. In the Congo, right now, we are
launching a local mask production, so where we are making masks, we
are asking people to start making masks at the foundation
headquarters.”
At his hospital, there are handwashing stations every 20 meters.
He beams that every doctor, nurse, patient or family member is
given a mask for free upon entering. As a global citizen, and one
who feels a moral obligation to address health concerns for those
in need, Mutombo can’t ignore a health crisis when he knows
he’s in position to help.
“One of the doctors says when there’s a problem affecting
one part of the community, it should be a responsibility of every
human being living on the planet,” Mutombo said. “… If we
didn’t think that this great epidemic that affects all of us was
just a Chinese problem and we didn’t think it was our problem,
that’d mean we were wrong because we knew that we didn’t
participate or if we didn’t take enough steps, this
epidemicwould ravage our community globally.â€
Former Denver Nuggets star Dikembe Mutombo poses with his family in
front of his banner during his jersey retirement ceremony at
halftime of the Denver Nuggets Portland Trail Blazers game October
30, 2016 at Pepsi Center.
Mutombo, who planned to become a doctor when he enrolled at
Georgetown, knows that his accomplishments wouldn’t have been
possible without basketball, without the platform the game provided
him. For that, he thanks his mentors like Bill Russell, Patrick
Ewing and legendary Hoyas coach John Thompson.
And though he’s just as comfortable discussing global
catastrophes as he is reflecting on his storied Hall of Fame
career, his tone changes when asked about his favorite memories
from the five seasons he spent in Denver. Inevitably, he brings up
the Nuggets’ improbable first-round upset of the No. 1 seed
Seattle SuperSonics in 1994, however, that’s not where his mind
goes first.
“I was welcomed to the city like an angel,†Mutombo said.
“Like ‘OK, you’re the one who we were looking for.’â€
The Nuggets had been rudderless after Doug Moe’s sterling run
throughout the ’80s. Mutombo gave the Nuggets an imposing,
finger-wagging, defensive identity.
“(I appreciate) so much that that organization made me the
face of the team and the face of the city and it made me their
franchise player,†he said. “… I gave that beautiful city
almost everything they ask of me.â€
In turn, they gave him an enduring nickname befitting a man of
his stature: Mt. Mutombo.
“I don’t know if I’d gone to some city that is very flat,
like other cities in America where there’s no mountains, would
they have called me Mt. Mutombo?†he joked. “You cannot forget
where you were born. It’s because of the city of Denver that Mt.
Mutombo was born. I think Dikembe Mutombo’s career was born with
the Denver Nuggets.â€
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And from there his legend flourished, an iconic defensive player
with an even bigger appetite for helping others.
Dan Issel, the coach when the Nuggets sprung their incredible
first-round upset over Seattle, may have said it best during
Mutombo’s jersey retirement in 2016.
“This man has given more for the game of basketball than the
game of basketball ever gave him,†Issel said.
Now, even in retirement, Mutombo refuses to stop playing
defense.
