![]() Whether it’s current players, former players, NBA executives or scouts, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri or Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, those working in the NBA with African ties revere Mutombo.Īntetokounmpo is now an NBA champion, two-time MVP and a six-time All-Star, but he sees Mutombo and Olajuwon as the godfathers of African basketball. ![]() ![]() Mutombo has also been a big brother for Africans who are either playing or working in the NBA as well. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award winner twice for “outstanding service and dedication to the community.” But just as notable was that Mutombo was also named the NBA’s J. 55 jersey was retired by the Nuggets and the Atlanta Hawks. Mutombo was an eight-time NBA All-Star who was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year four times. They are committed to the promise David made to see the continent shine.” Related Story Mark Tatum Q&A: ‘We think that this continent has tremendous potential’ Read now I’m so happy that our commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum following footsteps very well. “He was a very smart man who wanted to rule the continent. “I believed Stern back then because he had the capacity and the knowledge to make things happen,” Mutombo said of the former commissioner, who died in 2020. Stern - who understood the importance of promoting the NBA to the world by playing exhibition games in Europe, getting games on television in China and spreading Basketball Without Borders programs all over the world - made Mutombo the NBA’s first global ambassador in 2009. They later did just that - Stern, Mutombo and other NBA players met anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela as part of an Africa tour in Johannesburg in 1993. However, Stern also pulled Mutombo to the side and told him he wanted to go to Africa with him. But when the Denver Nuggets drafted Mutombo with the fourth overall selection in 1991, the bridge between Africa and the NBA truly began to be built.Īfter Mutombo was selected, he shook then-NBA commissioner David Stern’s hand as all draftees did. Olajuwon is widely considered the greatest basketball player from Africa. Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon was the first African drafted into the NBA in 1984 and became a Hall of Famer who won two NBA titles with the Houston Rockets. ![]() 4 overall in 1991, Dikembe Mutombo (right) became an important part of then-NBA commissioner David Stern’s goal of growing the league globally.Īndrew D. He’s been an ambassador, not only a global ambassador for the NBA, but he’s been ambassador for this sport in the continent, on the continent and around the world, right? He’s a global ambassador for us, but his presence here means so much because he is what, when young Africans look up to, they look up to Dikembe because he did it. “He is truly invaluable,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said of Mutombo. So when the Basketball Africa League began its second season on March 5 at Dakar Arena, it was only fitting that Mutombo was there representing the foundation of African basketball. In 2022, the Basketball Hall of Famer is one of the greatest defenders in NBA history, but more important, Mutombo has remained the NBA’s greatest ambassador for Africa and perhaps the world. Mutombo would go on to not only graduate from Georgetown, but become one of the school’s all-time great basketball players. In 1987, Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo left the Democratic Republic of Congo with a USAID scholarship at Georgetown University in Washington hoping to become a doctor. Hall of Famer dances with crowd postgame and tells “I’m home.” /EP8CaHbggc- Marc J. ![]()
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