Dikembe Mutombo, a Hall of Fame player and tireless advocate, dies at 58 from brain cancer

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Dikembe Mutombo, a Hall of Fame player and tireless advocate, dies at 58 from brain cancer

2024-10-01 03:57 Last Updated At：04:00

Dikembe Mutombo, a Basketball Hall of Famer who was one of the best defensive players in NBA history and a longtime global ambassador for the game, died Monday from brain cancer, the league announced. He was 58.

His family revealed two years ago that he was undergoing treatment in Atlanta for a brain tumor. The NBA said he died surrounded by his family.

“Dikembe Mutombo was simply larger than life,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “On the court, he was one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in the history of the NBA. Off the floor, he poured his heart and soul into helping others.”

Mutombo was distinctive in so many ways — the playful finger wag at opponents after blocking their shots, his height, his deep and gravelly voice, his massive smile. Players of this generation were always drawn to him and Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid, who was born in Cameroon, looked to Mutombo as an inspiration.

“It’s a sad day, especially for us Africans, and really the whole world,” Embiid said Monday. “Other than what he’s accomplished on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court. He’s one of the guys that I look up to, as far as having an impact, not just on the court, but off the court. He’s done a lot of great things. He did a lot of great things for a lot of people. He was a role model of mine. It is a sad day.”

Mutombo spent 18 seasons in the NBA, playing for Denver, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, New York and the then-New Jersey Nets. The 7-foot-2 center out of Georgetown was an eight-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA selection and went into the Hall of Fame in 2015 after averaging 9.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game for his career.

He also was part of one of the league's most iconic playoff moments, helping eighth-seeded Denver oust top-seeded Seattle in the first round of the 1994 Western Conference playoffs. That best-of-five series marked the first time a No. 8 beat a No. 1 in NBA history.

“It's really hard to believe," Toronto President Masai Ujiri said Monday, pausing several times because he was overcome with emotion shortly after hearing the news of Mutombo's death. "It's hard for us to be without that guy. You have no idea what Dikembe Mutombo meant to me. ... That guy, he made us who we are. That guy is a giant, an incredible person.”

Mutombo last played during the 2008-09 season, devoting his time after retirement to charitable and humanitarian causes. He spoke nine languages and founded the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation in 1997, concentrating on improving health, education and quality of life for the people in the Congo.

And on occasion, LeBron James pointed out with a laugh on Monday, Mutombo didn't necessarily improve the health of others.

“My fondest memory of Dikembe Mutombo? He fractured my face on my birthday in Cleveland with an elbow,” James, the Los Angeles Lakers' star, said while taking several minutes Monday to pay tribute to Mutombo's life. "I never even got an opportunity to tell him about that. But yeah. I don’t remember how old … I was in Cleveland, my first stint, and I think I was turning 22 maybe?

“I went to the hole and caught one of those Dikembe elbows, and if anybody know about the Dikembe elbows, they do not feel good. He fractured my face, and I went to the hospital that night, and I wore a mask for a little bit. That is my memory of Dikembe,” James said.

James was close on the details: Dec. 29, 2004, was when that play happened, late in the first half, one day before his 20th birthday.

Mutombo told reporters that night he wasn't sure how James got hurt. “He was laying there and I was like, ‘What happened, what happened?’” Mutombo told the Houston Chronicle after that game. "All I know, I was running to the basket. ... LeBron turned around to stop me going to the basket. The collision happened.”

Ryan Mutombo, the Hall of Famer's son, said in a tribute posted on social media that his father “loved others with every ounce of his being.”

“My dad is my hero because he simply cared,” Ryan Mutombo wrote. “He remains the purest heart I have ever known.”

Mutombo served on the boards of many organizations, including Special Olympics International, the CDC Foundation and the National Board for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

“There was nobody more qualified than Dikembe to serve as the NBA’s first Global Ambassador,” Silver said. “He was a humanitarian at his core. He loved what the game of basketball could do to make a positive impact on communities, especially in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo and across the continent of Africa.”

Mutombo is one of three players to win the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year four times. The others: reigning DPOY winner Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Hall of Famer Ben Wallace.

“He was always there to talk to me and advise me on how to approach the season and take care of my body and icing after games and stretching and trying different things like yoga,” Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “He will be always remembered and may his soul rest in peace.”

Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey — who was with Mutombo for many seasons in Houston — was informed of his friend’s death during the team's media day on Monday. Tears welled in Morey’s eyes as he processed the news.

“There aren’t many guys like him,” Morey said. “Just a great human being. When I was a rookie GM in this league, my first chance in Houston, he was someone I went to all the time. ... His accomplishments on the court, we don’t need to talk about too much. Just an amazing human being, what he did off the court for Africa. Rest in peace, Dikembe.”

AP Sports Writers Steve Megargee in Milwaukee, Greg Beacham in Los Angeles and Dan Gelston in Camden, New Jersey, and Associated Press writer Ian Harrison in Toronto contributed to this report.

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Supplies arrive by plane and mule to North Carolina as Helene death toll tops 100

2024-10-01 03:59 Last Updated At：04:00

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Widespread devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene came into light Monday across the South, revealing a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers and mud-covered highways in one of the worst storms in U.S. history. The death toll rose to 121.

A crisis was unfolding in western North Carolina, where residents stranded by washed-out roads and a lack of power and cellular service lined up Monday for fresh water and a chance to message loved ones that they were alive.

At least 121 deaths in six Southeastrtn states have been attributed to the storm — a number that climbed Monday as a clearer picture emerged of the damage it inflicted on an area stretching from Florida’s Gulf Coast northward to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.

North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, predicted the toll would rise as rescuers and other emergency workers continue to reach areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding. During a briefing Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall suggested as many as 600 people hadn’t been accounted for as of Monday afternoon, saying some might be dead.

Government officials and aid groups were working to bring basic supplies by airlift, truck and mule to the hard-hit tourism hub of Asheville and its surrounding mountain towns.

The destruction and desperation were unimaginable. A flattened cargo container sat atop a bridge crossing a river with muddy brown water. Overturned pontoon boats and splintered wooden docks and tree trunks covered the surface of a picturesque lake tucked between the mountains.

A woman cradled her child while people around her gathered on a hillside where they found cellphone service, many sending a simple text: “I'm OK.”

Several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides, including Interstate 40, and the city's water system was severely damaged, forcing residents to scoop creek water into buckets so they could flush toilets.

In one neighborhood where a wall of water ripped away all of the trees and left behind a muddy mess, people shared food and water and comforted each other. “That’s the blessing so far in this,” Sommerville Johnston said outside her home, which has been without power since Friday.

She planned on treating the neighborhood to venison stew from her powerless freezer before it goes bad. “Just bring your bowl and spoon,” she said.

Others waited in a line for more than a block at Mountain Valley Water, a water seller, to fill up milk jugs and whatever other containers they could find.

Derek Farmer, who brought three gallon-sized apple juice containers, said he had been prepared for the storm but now was nervous after three days without water. “I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be,” Farmer said.

Officials warned that rebuilding from the widespread loss of homes and property would be lengthy and difficult. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida and Virginia.

Video showed a mass of debris, including overturned pontoon boats and splintered wooden docks, covering the surface of Lake Lure, a picturesque spot tucked between the mountains outside Asheville.

Helene roared ashore in northern Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded waterways.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that hundreds of roads were closed across western North Carolina and that shelters were housing more than 1,000 people.

Cooper implored area residents to avoid travel for their own safety and to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles. More than 50 search teams spread throughout the region in search of stranded people.

Several dozen people gathered on high ground in Asheville, where they found one of the city's hottest commodities — a cell signal.

“Is this day three or day four?” Colleen Burnet asked. “It’s all been a blur.”

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas topped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) since Wednesday.

President Joe Biden said Monday that the federal government would be with survivors and others in the nation’s southeast affected by Helene “as long as it takes.”

He expected to ask Congress for additional money for disaster assistance and intends to travel to North Carolina later this week when his presence wouldn’t divert from live-saving search-and-rescue missions.

Ten federal search and rescue teams were on the ground and another nine were on their way, while trucks and cargo planes were arriving with food and water, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell surveyed damage with North Carolina's governor Monday.

Volunteers were showing up too. Mike Toberer decided to bring a dozen of his mules to deliver food, water and diapers to the hard-to-reach mountainous areas.

“We’ll take our chainsaws, and we’ll push those mules through,” he said, noting that each one can carry about 200 pounds (90 kilograms) and travel 2 mph (3.2 kph).

Western North Carolina suffered relatively more devastation because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall.

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had that rain on top of more rain,” Patterson said.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.

Along Florida's Gulf Coast, several feet of water swamped the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, forcing workers to move two manatees and sea turtles. All of the animals were safe but much of the aquarium’s vital equipment was damaged or destroyed, said James Powell, the aquarium’s executive director.

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, said the storm “literally spared no one.” Most people in and around Augusta, a city of about 200,000 people near the South Carolina border, were still without power Monday, and Kemp and other officials tried to reassure residents that they felt their misery.

With at least 25 killed in South Carolina, Helene was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.

Tropical Storm Kirk formed Monday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and is expected to become a “large and powerful hurricane” by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was located about 700 miles (1,125 kilometers) west of the Cabo Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (70 kph). There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the storm system was not a threat to land.

Associated Press reporters John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Beatrice Dupuy in New York City and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed.