Exclusive: Dikembe Mutombo Remembered By Former Teammate As ‘So Much More’ Than A Basketball Player

While the basketball world mourns Dikembe Mutombo’s death, at least one of his former teammates is celebrating the towering NBA defensive stalwart’s life by pointing to his indelible legacy of humanitarianism that is still very much alive.

Mutombo, born Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo, died on Monday at 58 from brain cancer, the NBA announced.

But while fans’ knee-jerk reactions were to revisit moments of his basketball greatness – including and especially his signature finger-wagging that playfully taunted players whose shots he blocked while simultaneously warning them against trying it again – Maurice Taylor took a decidedly different tack.

Yes, Mutombo was a game-changer when it came to the roundball, but he also had a similar effect on the game of life, Taylor told NewsOne on Monday in an exclusive interview.

“I played with Dikembe Mutombo, we all called him Deke, for two seasons in the early 2000s,” said Taylor, a 10-year NBA veteran who remembered Mutombo stepping up when his team needed him most. “With Yao Ming being hurt, he really helped us in ways we couldn’t have anticipated.”

However, Taylor continued, “it almost does him a disservice to just talk about him as a Hall of Fame basketball player, because he was so much more than a player.”

To be sure, Mutombo was an elite rim protector whose 7’2 frame made for an imposing presence from his first NBA season in 1991 to his swan song in 2009. From making the all-rookie team to going on to win multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards, there was no denying Mutombo’s basketball skills.

But it was arguably when he wasn’t in uniform that he saved his best for humanity, Taylor said, pointing to Mutombo’s philanthropic efforts, particularly back in his native African nation.

“He always raised money for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, specifically Kinshasa, the capital city where he was born,” Taylor pointed out. “He built a multi-million dollar hospital there – Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital – named in honor of his mother. His mission was to ensure that people there, regardless of income, would have access to quality, specialized care.“

Just two years ago, Mutombo won the Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award, named for the iconic sportscaster and awarded to “people that have taken risk and used an innovative approach to helping the disadvantaged through the power of sports.”

Years earlier, in 2010, Mutombo was presented with The Laureus Sport for Good Award  “for his charitable work in his native Congo.”

According to Taylor, Mutombo achieved much of his success away from basketball in part because of his basketball connections, but also through his own sense of self-determination to effect change in the Congo.

“He financed a lot of it himself, but he also reached out to all the NBA players he knew to raise money,” Taylor recalled. “Every summer, he invited us out to the hospital site to see it come to fruition. He was the first person to educate me on the strife and torment that people of the Congo experienced on such enriched land. And he was an NBA global ambassador long after he retired.”

Taylor said Muttombo’s penchant for humanitarianism rubbed off on other NBA players, including Luol Deng, whose eponymous foundation for social change benefits his African homeland of South Sudan.

“He paved the way,” Taylor said of Mutombo, whose death he described as a major loss well beyond thew game of basketball.

“Deke was one of my best friends during my playing days and he will be deeply missed by me and all fortunate enough to know and love him,” Taylor added.

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