Mount Mutombo Appreciation, one of the best defensive big men ever in NBA history

[ao17]

Appreciated

Mount. Mutombo FTW

 

[b l u e devils acc]

"Who wants to sex Mutombo!"

Seriously, great dude, has done great things for his native land Congo. Four-time defensive player of the year, that's an incredible feat. One of the bestpost defender and shotblockers in league history. He's certainly left his stamp on the game of basketball.

 

[22 deuces 22]

Respect.

 

[guerrilla warfare]

BlastaMasta8 wrote:

---

You will always be appreciated by me.
Indeed...

Adidas should retro his shoes...

 

[hampisaboss]

Originally Posted by Osh Kosh Bosh

as basketball player,

For his charity work

 

[nyrican23]

Appreciated....dude had so much heart

 

[cb94]

Originally Posted by TCERDA

I freakin hate Mutombo!!! The reasoning behind this is, when I was a kid about 13 years ago, I saw him at the mall here in San Antonio. He was giving a few autographs and I tried to get one........... This was his response. In that fuk3d up accent "I already got you man" I was like

. He then pointed to a couple other hispanic kids and shrugged his shoulder like "All yall look alike, I think I got you???" Then walked off..................................... Being 12 and SOL I was really

. Being sad grew into hatred toward this dude. (Yea, Im still salty till this day

) He can go F himself.

The end

 

[VinMillerHearn58]

The NBA will def. miss Mutombo. Like you guys said, the finger wave is one of the most iconic actions that has been seen in basketball. But hiswork in charity is what really shines the most. He is a very kind hearted person and his charity work will not be matched by any other NBA player.

 

[Hijo Del Promo]

appreciated, dude was awesome, i sent him a basketball card to get signed in 1998, he signed it and had it returned to me in 3 weeks.. thats fast for a SASEautograph request..

 

[jepeh21]

Originally Posted by xxhu5sl1npnoyxx

appreciated, dude was awesome, i sent him a basketball card to get signed in 1998, he signed it and had it returned to me in 3 weeks.. thats fast for a SASE autograph request..

great that he sent it back

 

[nrg1604]

he's like the last player who was in the nba the year i started to follow hoops. too bad he couldn't check out on his own terms.

 

[cruzair13]

"no no not in my house"
DIKEMBEEEEEEEEEEEEE MUTOMBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
best name in the nba.

 

[ghenges]

yuh dun know..

 

[japanair21]

^

 

[3miyasaki3]

Loved how no one knows his age. The finger wave always made me think he had swag. Appreciated.

 

[leftfieldgreen]

giving back to his country dude is a class act
dude will be missed
much appreciated

 

[Truth]

appreciated on & off the court

 

[kicks4kaskets]

One of the best defensive centers ever. He'll be missed.

 

[burns1923]

He'll always be a Nugget and Sixer to me. Definitely one of those favorite players growing up.

 

[nychiphophippo]

sad to see Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo go out like that

 

[xbiker47]

one of the best

 

[Deleted member 38182]

Originally Posted by nYcHipHopHippo

sad to see Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo go out like that

you would

 

[i fr3sh i]

Appreciated. We never would have made the finals without him

 

[AirMagKnows]

Much respected and never forgotten. *waving the finger

 

[ady2glude707]

Great read towards the end of this article about the "Mutombo rule" (Finger wag)

[h2]Mutombo's legacy to last beyond hoops [/h2]

There are a million Dikembe Mutombo stories to be told, and it boggles the mind to imagine how many more millions of stories will be told in the future by all the people in Africa whose lives would have been lost had it not been for the $29 million hospital Mutombo built on the outskirts of the Congolese capital of Kinshasa.

Twenty, 30, 100 years from now, Mutombo's legacy will be that hospital in his impoverished home country, the place Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo was born and raised, where he learned to speak five African dialects along with French, Spanish, Portuguese and English.

There is a story about the money Mutombo had to pay to squatters who were farming on the hospital site when funds were still being raised, battles with the government over land-use permits, the story of Mutombo's personal $3.5 million down payment on the facility in 2001, and his subsequent $15 million donation toward operating funds after the facility -- the first modern medical facility built in that country in 40 years -- opened its doors in 2006.

There are stories about elbows (ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy told one on the air the other night, about insisting that Mutombo always wear elbow pads during practice to protect his Houston Rockets teammates), stories about nightclubs, stories about his trip to the White House. Too many stories to tell in one place, really, although there was one story that was being retold Wednesday after word spread around the NBA and the world that Mutombo's career apparently had come to an end.

It's a good story, and it concerns what will be Mutombo's non-humanitarian legacy, or what we'll remember him for from his time in the NBA.

The finger wag.

It was Mutombo's distinctive gesture, the raising of his right index, the shaking of said finger from side to side -- a universal gesture familiar to babies, grandparents and everyone in between, all across the planet: "That was a no-no."

Well, once upon a time, a certain NBA official tried to take that gesture away from Mutombo, and that was the story Rod Thorn told ESPN.com on Wednesday -- a day after Mutombo's illustrious career came to a premature end when he injured his knee and was wheeled off the court on a stretcher in the Houston Rockets' 107-103 Game 2 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night.

"It was one conversation, it was on the phone, and no, it was not a short conversation," Thorn recalled. "There were never any short conversations with Dikembe, because he was always trying to tell you how what you were explaining to him was wrong."

Thorn, currently the president of the New Jersey Nets, was Stu Jackson's predecessor in the job commonly nicknamed VP of Violence, what the NBA officially calls the executive vice president of basketball operations.

It was a different NBA a decade ago, a league in which fights were not commonplace but were somewhat tolerated. Handchecking was allowed to keep the quick guards out of the paint, and those who got in there anyway against Mutombo's teams often found their shots emphatically rejected by a 7-foot-2 giant who would then stand over them or stare at them, waving that long, pointy finger in the air.

Tolerance for the gesture varied, but there was a rising tide of discontent by the time Thorn and his boss, NBA commissioner David Stern, decided intolerance would be the most prudent way to prevent a future finger wag from turning into a bench-clearing brawl.

Yes, Mutombo was en route to becoming an eight-time All-Star and four-time Defensive Player of the Year. But the NBA was beginning its way down the path toward making the game much less physical and more nonconfrontational, and the decision was made to telephone Mutombo and tell him to knock it off.

"We thought he was getting carried away with it; players were getting upset. I told him: 'You've already blocked his shot, and now, in his mind, you're trying to humiliate him, too,'" said Thorn, who chuckled as he recounted how Mutombo reacted to the call.

As gravelly as Mutombo's voice was, it could boom, too.



And what Thorn heard coming out of the earpiece of his phone was an unhappy, deep-voiced lecturer giving an impassioned plea for this unfair and unwise decision to be repealed.

"What are you guys doing to me? You are taking away my trademark?!" Thorn recalled Mutombo arguing, refusing to accept the notion of an outright ban, and pretty much refusing to let the conversation end until Thorn backed down.

What eventually emerged was a compromise, with the NBA allowing Mutombo to perform his signature finger wag as long as he was looking toward the stands when he did it. The rules were clearly spelled out, and Mutombo was on notice that he couldn't make the gesture toward an opposing player or toward the opposing team's bench. And if he claimed he was gesturing toward the fans directly behind the opposing bench, well, that excuse was not going to fly.

"He became a recidivist every now and then, and then we'd call him on it, and after a couple T's he got the message," Thorn said.

The Mutombo Rule eventually seemed to lapse, and it was not uncommon over the final couple of seasons of the 42-year-old's career to see a referee turn a blind eye (along with the slightest of upturned grins) toward Mutombo when he crossed the line and gave that old-school finger wag, the one with the stare attached.

In the end, they'd let him get away with it, knowing that this giant of a man was one of the game's gifts to the planet, and the money that a technical foul would cost Mutombo (a player's first five techs in any season come with an accompanying $1,000 fine) was better off staying in Mutombo's wallet, since some of that money would inevitably cycle back to the sick people in Kinshasa whose health would not be getting restored had it not been for Mutombo, his famous finger wag and his huge heart.

The feeling seemed to be that we would see that finger wag only a few more times on the court. Sadly, it now appears we've seen it for the final time.

But happily, it is not the most important thing he'll be remembered for.