Born in Congo, National Basketball Association (NBA) legend Dikembe Mutombo has died of brain cancer. He initially came to the United States to attend Georgetown on an academic scholarship. After playing in college under legendary coach John Thompson, Mutombo played for many years in the NBA. He was a naturalized U.S. citizen.
President George Bush in the 2007 State of the Union acknowledged Mutombo:
“Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa, amid great poverty and disease. He came to Georgetown University on a scholarship to study medicine — but Coach John Thompson got a look at Dikembe and had a different idea. . . . Dikembe became a star in the NBA, and a citizen of the United States. But he never forgot the land of his birth, or the duty to share his blessings with others. He built a brand new hospital in his old hometown. A friend has said of this good-hearted man: `Mutombo believes that God has given him this opportunity to do great things.” And we are proud to call this son of the Congo a citizen of the United States of America.'”
As the Associated Press reported, “Mutombo was an incredible basketball player — one of the best shot blockers and defensive players of all time,” Barack Obama wrote on social media. “But he also inspired a generation of young people across Africa, and his work as the NBA’s first global ambassador changed the way athletes think about their impact off the court.”
Mutombo “built a hospital in the Congo and that facility — named for his mother — has now treated about 200,000 people. He worked tirelessly on behalf of the Special Olympics, on behalf of UNICEF, on behalf of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He traveled the world, he encouraged NBA leaders to visit Africa, he fought for change. He was the first, and still is the only, person to win the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award twice.”
KJ