After Hakeem Olajuwon, he was perhaps the best African ever in the NBA and made blocking an art form. Even at the age of 41, Dikembe Mutombo still had such a presence in the Zone that many players were afraid of him and did not move to the basket. The Zone was his territory. Or as he would call it: the House of Dikembe Mutombo. Mutombo is 52 years old today. All other articles on the greatest players of all time can be found in our archive.
Shawn Kemp is at a loss. Again and again the Seattle SuperSonics athletics monster pulls against the Denver Nuggets to the basket, again and again he is cleared of this African beanpole with Albatross span. In none of the five games against the eight seeded nuggets can Kemp score more than 19 points. Its cast rate of 36.8 percent is also underground.
On the other hand, the nuggets are very happy. The first eight seeded team to make the upset against the top seed in 1994, despite a 0-2 series deficit, despite a missing superstar. Dikembe Mutombo jumps into the breach – the player who drives Kemp to white-hotness. The Congolese has 31 blocks in five games – a record that still holds today.
The victory against the Sonics was also the birth of the second African star in the NBA. Mutombo’s Signature Move also became a classic. The Finger Wag is still one of the most striking gestures in the history of the league.
That Mutombo would earn his money with the orange leather at all, is hardly foreseeable only a few years before. In 1988 he comes to Washington to study at Georgetown University. The Congolese speaks only broken English, actually he wanted to study medicine and become a doctor. Hoyas coach John Thompson, however, strays in between and signs the 22-year-old for the basketball team.
Thompson’s dream: Mutombo is to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Ewing, who left college in 1985 in the direction of New York Knicks, together with front court colleague Alonzo Mourning. In the regular season, the plan was initially successful. Mourning and Mutombo dominated among the baskets, the Hoyas won the Big East Conference.
“You’re like a big wall. A wall with arms that blocks the poor shooters’ throws. Even if the opponents are still successful with their fakes, they are still blocked,” the L.A. Times wrote in February 1989.
The fans celebrate their “Rejection Row” and spread out in posters with the silhouette of a blocking hand at every home game. In the NCAA Tournament you still have to bow to the Duke Blue Devils in the Elite Eight.
Mutombo completes two more years under Thompson in Georgetown before taking the step into the NBA. The Congolese don’t have to wait long on draft night. Denver Nuggets are already in fourth place. Mutombo will compensate for the departure of Blair Rasmussen, who had started last year for Dan Issel’s team.
And Mutombo does what he does best in his first year: Play defense. Mount Mutombo collects three average rejections in his rookie season, plus strong 16.6 points and 12.3 rebounds in just over 38 minutes. Nevertheless, the nuggets are still bad and clearly miss the playoffs as eleventh in the West.
It took until 1994 for Mutombo to see the playoffs for the first time with the nuggets. It comes the series against the Sonics – and suddenly Mutombo is the new star in Denver. Totally unexpected. His Finger Wag runs up and down in all the highlight shows at ESPN and Co.
Why does Mutombo suddenly start wiggling his index finger and then “Not in my house” towards his opponent? “All the other NBA players with good stats had their signature moves, except me. So I was thinking to myself: I need something like that,” Mutombo explained later. The trick is on, soon the then 28-year-old gets his first signature sneaker.
1995 was almost logically Mutombo’s most individually successful season. He leads the NBA in the blocks for the second time in a row (3.9), is invited to the All-Star-Game for the second time after 1992 and also wins the Defensive-Player-Of-The-Year-Award for the first time. In the playoffs, however, Denver and the Spurs finish in round one after just three games.
The following year will be even worse: The Nuggets miss the playoffs for the first time in two seasons – and Mutombo signs as a free agent in Atlanta. The 30-year-old continues to be the defensive exception for the Hawks as well, after the Regular Season he is allowed to raise the trophy of the best defender in the league for the second time.
In the playoffs, however, it’s not enough for more than the second round, Michael Jordan and the Bulls make short work of Atlanta in five games. This picture will continue in the coming years with regard to Mutombo. More than the second round in the lockout year 1999 is not possible, in 2000 the playoffs are missed completely as the 14th in the east.
Mutombo himself continues to stand out from the rather average Hawks collective, wins the DPOY award once again and, apart from 1999, becomes an all-star in each of his years in Atlanta.
Mutombo, on the other hand, has other concerns off the court. Civil war rages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the summer of 1998 rebels try to take over the capital Kinshasa – where Mutombo’s family also lives. The mother of the center suffers from high fever and has to go to the hospital at this time, but she is sent back home. There is neither enough staff nor electricity.
Shortly thereafter, the 63-year-old dies, while Mutombo, as vice president of the NBPA, tries to prevent the imminent lockout. The days after are probably the worst of his life. Of course he wants to go home immediately to be at his mother’s funeral.
But his father contradicts him: “He told me to stay in the USA. He doesn’t want another loss in the family so soon after my mother’s death,” Mutombo said on the sidelines of a Seattle Times charity game.
After it also no longer works on the court, he is shipped to Philadelphia for the 2001 trading deadline. In return, the 76ers send the injured Theo Ratliff to Atlanta. Fancy the finals this year, the Sixers on the Five simply want to keep up with the Spurs and Lakers. Mount Mutombo is supposed to keep Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan at bay if you get there.
And indeed: Mutombo cleans up under its own basket, collects 12.4 rebounds on average and blocks 2.5 throws per game. The Congolese doesn’t have to score, after all, an Allen Iverson in MVP form shoots every ball onto the basket he gets his hands on. The throws that don’t go in take Mutombo reliably (4.6 offensive rebounds on average).
In the finals, the favourite Lakers start with a win, Mutombo shines against O’Neal and Co. with five blocks. After that, however, the diesel bursts in on him. Philly doesn’t win any more games, Shaq is voted final MVP. Mutombo being named best defender for the fourth time is a small consolation.
Two years later, Mutombo come dangerously close to the ring again, but he is no longer in the 2001 form with the New Jersey Nets and is injured in the first game of the second round against Boston and is forced to sit out until the finals.
However, he can no longer give the decisive impetus there, he is only on the field for an average of 11.5 minutes. Nets lose 2-4.
After a one-year intermezzo with the Knicks, the 38-year-old wants to reach for the ring again and joins the Rockets. In Houston the stars are Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, Mutombo is supposed to give the backup of the Chinese giant.
But the talented Rockets won’t make it through the first round until 2008. At the beginning of 2009 Tracy McGrady was seriously injured and the season is over for the star. Subsequently, however, the Rockets develop a “now-first-right” atmosphere. Mutombo is virtually reactivated from almost retirement, plays nine games and becomes the “father” of the team.
The Rockets win 22 consecutive games against the Trail Blazers for the first play-off series since 1997, and in their first game Mutombo shows with nine rebounds and two blocks that he still has a lot to offer at 42.
in the second game, however, the Congolese is unhappy – his knee is broken. A few weeks later he announces his retirement in tears. After 18 seasons in the NBA. The Rockets almost make the upset against the Lakers and even force them into a seventh game, but after an injury to Yao Ming, the playoffs for Houston are over.
Mutombo has shaped the NBA with his defensive game. He elevated the block to an art form, even Michael Jordan was attracted by the Congolese and wobbled his finger after a dunk over Mutombo. In the meantime, the superstars of the league even competed to see who would score first over the center. In many other sports, the Finger Wag has meanwhile also found a retreat.
The 48-year-old now ranks second on the all-time list for blocks, only Hakeem Olajuwon sent the ball back to its sender more often. With his unmistakable, deep voice, Mutombo reviews his career. And make one thing clear: Nobody gets into the House of Mutombo that easily.