The finger wag. The enormous smile. The unmistakable voice. Dikembe Mutombo played defense at a level and with a flair that few others in basketball history ever possessed, all among the many reasons why he's immortalized in the Hall of Fame.
On the court, he stopped people.
Off the court, he helped people.
In simplest terms, that is the legacy of Mutombo, the 7-foot-2 mountain of a center who died Monday, about two years after his family revealed that he was dealing with brain cancer. The tributes started when the news broke and never stopped. Current and former players. Team and league executives. Even world leaders; Barack Obama, who hosted Mutombo at the White House more than once, weighed in as did Felix Tshisekedi, the president of Congo, Mutombo's homeland.
They all said the same thing in different ways. Mutombo touched lives, one way or another.
“Dikembe Mutombo was an incredible basketball player — one of the best shot blockers and defensive players of all time," Obama wrote on social media Monday. “But he also inspired a generation of young people across Africa, and his work as the NBA’s first global ambassador changed the way athletes think about their impact off the court.”
When Mutombo wanted something done, it got done. He built a hospital in the Congo and that facility — named for his mother — has now treated about 200,000 people. He worked tirelessly on behalf of the Special Olympics, on behalf of UNICEF, on behalf of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He traveled the world, he encouraged NBA leaders to visit Africa, he fought for change. He was the first, and still is the only, person to win the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award twice.
“His legacy of things that he did off of the court are going to long outlive the things he did on the court," one of his former coaches, fellow Hall of Famer Dan Issel, said Monday.
Issel coached Mutombo in Denver, where they were part of the first 8-seed-beats-1-seed upset in NBA playoff history, the one where the Nuggets ousted Seattle in 1994 in a best-of-5 series and Mutombo ended up on the floor when it was over, flat on his back, holding the ball over his head with absolute joy on his face.
That was an iconic moment. But Mutombo's iconic move was the finger wag — which he broke out after blocking a shot, his index finger going back and forth as if to say “no, no, no” to shooters who he had just rejected. It is legendary. It didn't start that way.
“He got called for a technical, I think, the first time he did it," Issel said. "And so the NBA made a rule that they liked it so much, they just didn’t want him doing it in somebody’s face. So, after that, they said, ‘Hey, if you turn to the crowd and do the finger waggle, you’ll be OK. Just don’t do it in the player’s face that you just blocked.’”
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, four-time defensive player of the year three-time All-NBA selection and went into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015 after averaging 9.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game for his career.
His speech in Springfield, Massachusetts on the night of his induction lasted about 9 minutes. And probably 8 1/2 of those minutes were him talking about everyone else, instead of talking about his own accomplishments. He had John Thompson, his Georgetown coach, and then-former NBA Commissioner David Stern on the stage with him as his Hall of Fame presenters. From Thompson, he learned basketball and how to look at the world. From Stern, he got the opportunity to use the NBA platform to help change the world. He could not have thanked either of them enough.
“The spirit of Dikembe Mutombo is never going to be forgotten," said Philadelphia guard Kyle Lowry, who was a Mutombo teammate in the center's final NBA season — with Houston in 2008-09. “I think everyone that’s ever been around, ever been a part of, whoever met him, knows how great of a man he was. He’s got a great family, great children. It’s a big loss for our league, our world.”
There will be no more finger wags. That voice — it was compared to the Cookie Monster, and Mutombo always saw the humor in that — has been silenced. Mutombo is gone. The legacy is not. It never will be.
And if someone had to sum up Mutombo's remarkable life in one sentence, there might be no better choice than the one he himself used to wrap up his Hall of Fame speech.
“I may not have won the championship,” he said that night, “but I'm a champion to so many people.”
AP Sports Writers Pat Graham and Dan Gelston contributed.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
FILE - Retired Denver Nuggets center Dikembe Mutombo waves to the crowd as his jersey number was retired by the team during halftime of the Nuggets' NBA basketball game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - The Atlanta Hawks' Dikembe Mutombo, left, drives to the hoop against the Chicago Bulls' Dennis Rodman during the second quarter of their playoff game Thursday, May 8, 1997, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Michael S. Green, File)
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy acknowledged Monday that derogatory remarks he made last year about Native Americans were “insensitive.” But Sheehy rejected his opponent’s call to apologize, during a contentious debate in a race that’s emerged as pivotal for control of the Senate.
Three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Tester had challenged Sheehy over remarks last year in which the Republican told a group of laughing supporters about bonding “with all the Indians ... while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.,” while working cattle at a ranch on the Crow Indian Reservation.
“Yeah, insensitive,” responded Sheehy, a former U.S. Navy SEAL. “I come from the military as many of our tribal members do. You know, we make insensitive jokes and probably off color-jokes sometimes.”
Sheehy then tried to shift the discussion to the immigration crisis but Tester kept pressing him.
“Tim, the statement you made degrades Native Americans across this country,” Tester said. “You’re a big guy, just apologize.”
“Will you apologize for opening the border?" Sheehy retorted.
The acrimonious exchange, during the debate’s closing minutes, underscored the growing tensions between the two campaigns as the contest enters its final stretch. They are each jockeying for support from a small contingent of moderate Republican and Independent voters in the state who are considered crucial to victory in November.
Sheehy sharply criticized Tester over his ties to lobbyists, who have donated more heavily to the Democrat this election cycle than to any other member of Congress, according to the non-partisan group OpenSecrets.
“While I was fighting in Afghanistan, he was eating lobbyist steak in D.C.," Sheehy said.
Tester in turn accused Sheehy of wanting to outlaw abortion, even as the Democrat linked his own campaign to a voter initiative that would enshrine abortion as a right under the state Constitution.
“I want to see Roe reinstated,” Tester said of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade that has allowed some states to sharply restrict abortions. “My opponent, on the other hand, feels exactly the opposite. He feels he's more entitled to make that decision than the women are.”
Tester is the last remaining Democrat to hold high office in Montana and the race is on track to be the most expensive in state history. Republicans party leaders including former President Donald Trump handpicked Sheehy in hopes of toppling Tester, a 68-year-old farmer.
Republicans need to gain just two seats in November to take the Senate majority when a new Congress convenes next year. They are widely considered to have a lock on one, in West Virginia, meaning Montana could make the difference.
Montana has seven Indian reservations and almost 70,000 Native Americans, representing about 7% of its total population, according to U.S. Census data. It’s a voting block that’s long been considered Democratic-leaning. Montana Republicans in recent years have courted tribal leaders hoping to gain their support in elections.
Tribal leaders were highly critical of Sheehy's derogatory comments about Native Americans that emerged in audio recordings published by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Sheehy did not respond when the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council asked him to apologize in early September. The council represents 11 tribes and First Nations in the U.S. and Canada.
Sheehy later downplayed the comments during a Fox News interview in which he suggested the audio was from “years ago” and had been edited to make him sound “like somebody I'm not.” But he did not deny the authenticity of the recordings on Monday.
Trump won Montana by about 17 percentage points in 2020. Seeking to capitalize on the former president's popularity in the state, Sheehy has frequently sought to lump Tester with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican's objective is to highlight public dissatisfaction over the administration’s struggles to stem illegal immigration on the southern border.
“Democrats on the Hill refused to hold the administration accountable for the largest mass migration in the history of this country,” Sheehy said in response to a debate question about the border.
Seeking to blunt the attacks, Tester skipped the Democratic National Convention last month, declined to endorse Harris and avoids mention of her on the campaign trail. He's opposed the administration over tighter pollution rules for coal plants and pressed it to do more on immigration.
“Look, I'll be the first person to tell you that President Biden has not done a good job on the southern border,” Tester said Monday.
Tim Sheehy, left, prepares to debate U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, right, on campus at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian via AP)
Tim Sheehy prepares to debate U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on campus at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian via AP)
Tim Sheehy prepares to debate U.S. Sen. Jon Tester on campus at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian via AP)
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester prepares to debate GOP challenger Tim Sheehy on campus at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian via AP)
