Shot blocker extraordinaire Dikembe Mutombo was elected to the National Basketball Association Hall of Fame on April 6. He will be enshrined on September 11, 2015 in Springfield, MA.

Throughout his eighteen year career, the 7-2 Mutombo blocked 3,289 shots – good for the second most blocks in an NBA career.[1] Dikembe, or “Deke” as he was known, also made eight all-star teams and was selected the NBA’s top defensive player on four occasions.[2]

The significance of this honor, especially considering Mutombo’s humble origins in Kinshasa, DR Congo, was not lost on the longtime center.

"Being from Africa, who would have ever thought that my name would have been called to the Basketball Hall of Fame? I never dreamed of playing basketball to reach this level."[3]

Few players were as feared, when Mutombo emerged from Georgetown in the early 90’s. The prolific shot blocker’s reputation led to one of the most iconic ad campaigns of that era. The slogan spawned by Mutombo’s Adidas shoe commercials merits repeating.

“Man does not fly in the house of Mutombo,” the ad campaign warned any would-be shooter who even considered driving on the man often called Mt. Mutombo.

While defense defined the man on the court, off of it Mutombo was perhaps less known, and yet more notable, for his generosity and unwillingness to leave his home continent behind.

In 1997 (only six years into his NBA career), Mutombo founded the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation. Throughout its existence, the Foundation has sent medical supplies to Kinshasa, dormitory beds to an educational and empowerment trust in South Africa, and served as a founding partner in the ONE campaign to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.[4]

The Foundation’s crowning achievement was realized in 2007 with the opening of the Biamba Marie Mutombo hospital in Mutombo’s native Kinshasa. The hospital, as notable for its commitment to transparency and justice as for its modern equipment, was established with the clear intent of bettering not only patients, but also healthcare in the DR Congo.[5] Among its stated initiatives, one reads the following:

• Capacity building of the local medical community through partnerships with local schools and medical personnel
• A commitment to hire locally, train employees continually and retain their services
• A promise to buy locally whenever possible

When speaking of the hospital, Mutombo references a favorite African proverb.

"When you take the elevator to go up, you always must remember to send it back down. [The hospital] is my way of sending it back down.”[6]

Adidas was right all those years back: Man did find flying difficult in the hardwood-lined house of Mutombo.

Fortunately for Africa, Mutombo never forgot his original home.

These days men not only fly in the house of Mutombo; they do so because the man himself helps to fashion their wings.

References

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ye-wa/6499589869