With the full name Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo, he was a Congolese-American professional basketball player. He played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association and was nicknamed Mount Mutombo for his phenomenal defence.
He went to Boboto College for high school to lay the groundwork for his medical career as classes were more challenging there. He also participated in football and martial arts but, at the age of 16, he decided that he wanted to concentrate on his basketball career. In 1987, he moved to the United States to enroll in college.
He attended Georgetown University on a scholarship and he originally intended to become a doctor but, the Georgetown Hoyas basketball coach, John Thompson, recruited him to play basketball. During his first year, he blocked 12 shots in a single game. He was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year twice in 1990 and 1991. Also in 1991, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and diplomacy.
During the 1991 NBA drafts, the Denver Nuggets selected Mutombo with the 4th overall pick. The Nuggets were ranked last in the NBA and opponent points per game and defensive rating. In 1992, to gain product endorsement contracts, he developed a 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. During that same year, he started an Adidas advertisement that used the catchphrase “man does not fly… in the house of Mutombo.”
As a rookie, he was selected for the All-Star team and averaged 16.6 points, 12.3 rebounds, and nearly three blocks per game. During the 1994 to 1995 season, he was in the All-Stars for a second time and received the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.
After the 1995 to 1996 NBA season, he signed a five-year free-agent contract with the Atlanta Hawks. During the 1998 to 1999 season, he was the NBA’s IBM award winner. That year, the NBA banned his finger wag and, after a short period of protesting, he complied with the new rule.
He spent February 2001 to 2002 with the Philadelphia 76ers. He spent August 2002 to 2003 with the New Jersey Nets, and October 2003 to August 2004 with the New York Knicks. In August of 2004, the Knicks traded him to the Chicago Bulls but, prior to the 2004-2005 season, the Bulls traded him to the Houston Rockets.
He contemplated retirement and spent the first part of 2008 as an unsigned free agent but he signed with the Houston Rockets for the remainder of the 2008 to 2009 season and he said it would be his farewell tour. During the second quarter of game two, he landed awkwardly and had to be carried off the floor. After the game, he said that surgery was needed and that his NBA career was over. Later it was confirmed that the quadriceps tendon of his left knee had been ruptured and he announced that he was retiring on April 23rd, 2009, after 18 seasons in the NBA.
Both the Atlanta Hawks and the Denver Nuggets retired his number 55 jersey. In 2015, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He also received the Sagar Strong Award on June 25th, 2018. In October 2022, he announced that he was undergoing treatment for a brain tumour. Mutombo died surrounded by his family from brain cancer on September 30th, 2024, at the age of 58, in Atlanta.