We will no longer see him wave his index finger from right to left, as if to tell us “no, no, no” in his gravelly voice. Former Congolese basketball player Dikembe Mutombo died Monday September 30 in Atlanta (Georgia, United States), following a brain tumor. He was 58 years old. He “was out of the ordinary”, paid tribute to him Adam Silverthe commissioner of the NBA – the North American professional league – of which he was one of the figures.
Born in Kinshasa, where he grew up with his nine brothers and sisters, Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques wa Mutombo, his full name, left Zaire (current Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1987, at the age of 21, for the United States , even though he does not speak a word of English – a language that he will quickly end up mastering, like eight other languages. He then harbored the dream of becoming a doctor. Basketball came into his life somewhat by chance. Barely landed at Georgetown University (Washington, DC.) thanks to a scholarship, the 2.18 meter tall guy caught the eye of local coach, John Thompson. Mutombo must make a choice: “I remember being very disappointed. I thought I could do both, he told Washington Post in 1991, but they told me it was impossible… Maybe I’ll become a doctor one day, after basketball. »
In 1991, he joined the NBA, selected fourth by Denver, becoming one of the first African players to step on the floors of the big league. He spent eighteen seasons there in total, in six teams. Two of them, the Atlanta Hawks and the Denver Nuggets, have since chosen to honor him by retiring his jersey. He was elected to the Hall of Fame, the basketball pantheon, in 2015.
Four times best defender
Although he has never won a title, he participated in two finals, in 2001 and 2003, and has multiplied individual awards. Selected among the All-Star (an annual match between the best players from the Eastern and Western Conferences of the NBA) eight times, he was crowned best defender of the season four times, a record that he shares with the American Ben Wallace and Frenchman Rudy Gobert. We remember in particular his blocks – he is still the second best blocker in NBA history with 3,289 units – and this index finger that he waved to tell his opponents that it was not going to be possible to mark.
“He was perhaps the best defender in NBA history with [l’Américain] Bill Russell »believes George Eddy. An NBA commentator since 1985, he is remembered by World of a player who “intimidated opposing attackers with his counterattacks and size” to the point of making it an art. From a man, too, who played with the public: “He had a big smile and that finger to say “not at my place, not tonight”… All this remains in the collective memory. »
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