Beloved finger-wagging Hall of Fame center Dikembe Mutombo, one of basketball’s most feared shot blockers, died of brain cancer, the NBA announced on Monday.
Mutombo, the NBA’s first “global ambassador,” was 58.
He rejected 3,289 shots, the second most in NBA history, during his long career that included stops in Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and Houston.
Many of those blocked shots were followed by an intimidating finger wag, telling opponents that it was in their best interest not to shoot the basketball within reach of the 7-foot-2 star.
Mutombo was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year four times.
Younger fans who might not have been familiar with Mutombo’s NBA career (1991-2009) were introduced to his finger wag during a Geico car insurance ad that comically featured his blocks and taunts.
After his career of protecting the rim and sending shots back from where they came, Mutombo dedicated his life to charitable health care efforts back in his native Democratic Republic of Congo and other developing countries.
The Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital’s emergency room, intensive care unit and 150 beds began serving patients in Kinshasa, the capital of his homeland, when it opened in December 2007.
“My thing is about fighting the mortality rate so we can allow the people to live longer,” he told NBC News in 2016. “That has been my cause, my drive.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called him “simply larger than life” and a “humanitarian at his core.”
“On the court, he was one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in the history of the NBA,” Silver said in a statement. “Off the floor, he poured his heart and soul into helping others.”
Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacques Wamutombo was born in Kinshasa on June 25, 1966.
He came to Georgetown University with hopes of becoming a doctor, but his large frame caught the attention of everyone on campus, including basketball coach John Thompson.
The future Hall of Fame coach, who developed future NBA big man Patrick Ewing and had Alonzo Mourning on campus, convinced Mutombo to turn his attention to the hardwood.
Mutombo parlayed his Georgetown play into becoming the fourth overall pick of the Denver Nuggets in the 1991 NBA Draft.
“His legacy expands far beyond basketball and he will forever remain a special part of the” Big East Conference and Georgetown, according to a Big East statement.
His deepest playoff run came in 2001 when he and fellow Georgetown alum Allen Iverson led the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA finals before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
“It’s a sad day, especially for us Africans and really the whole world,” 76ers center and Cameroon native Joel Embiid told reporters on Monday, shortly after he learned of Mutombo’s passing.
“Other than what he has accomplished on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
F. Brinley Bruton contributed.
