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As a basketball player, Dikembe Mutombo was known for his stifling defense, blocking shots and wagging a finger in opponents’ faces.
But when it came to fighting global health challenges like infant and maternal mortality, the NBA legend was squarely on offense.
The towering center, who spent 18 seasons with five teams in the NBA including the Atlanta Hawks, died Monday in Atlanta at 58 after a battle with brain cancer.
Mr. Mutombo, a hall of famer and prolific shot blocker who averaged more than 10 rebounds a game, became an NBA Global Ambassador in 2012, helping grow the game (and sports more broadly) in Africa and around the world.
But perhaps more importantly to his post-NBA life, he was a larger-than-life humanitarian, using his celebrity and charm for impact in the developing world, especially his native Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mr. Mutombo in 2013 told Global Atlanta he spent some $24 million of his own fortune to build a hospital there in his mother’s name, then continued raising money through his eponymous foundation, often through star-studded dinners and concerts in Atlanta, to hire and train staff and send over advanced medical equipment and supplies. Mr. Mutombo also served on the board of the Atlanta-based CDC Foundation.
Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital opened in 2007, providing a showpiece for modern health care in the DRC. A school named after his father, Samuel Mutombo Institute of Science & Entrepreneurship, was completed in 2021.
The 7-foot-2 Mr. Mutombo didn’t originally plan to play basketball professionally.
“I didn’t like it; it was one of the sports that I hated,” Mr. Mutombo said of the sport in a speech at Kennesaw State University in 2013. “But it’s like they say: Man may have his own plan, but God’s plan is much bigger than what we are.”
Tributes from Atlanta sports, political and nonprofit leaders rolled in after the NBA broke the news of Mr. Mutombo’s death.
The Hawks posted a statement from principal owner Tony Ressler, who said he was “deeply saddened by the news of Mr. Mutombo’s death.
“Dikembe was a proud and honorable man, who lived up to the definition of a word that became synonymous with his name – humanitarian. He used his many gifts and his platform to improve the lives of everyone he encountered, especially in his homeland of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and throughout Africa,” Mr. Ressler said.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens was able to visit with Mr. Mutombo shortly before his death.
“Like many across the globe, my heart is heavy with the loss of Atlanta Hawks legend and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo. I am grateful for the opportunity to visit with him and his wife Rose at their home last month and express the gratitude and pride Atlantans and millions worldwide held for such a truly good man. He is not just a hall of famer—he is irreplaceable. My prayers are with his family and loved ones.”
Jason Carter, the grandson of soon-to-be-centenarian and former President Jimmy Carter, and chairman of The Carter Center board of counselors, expressed similar sentiments, saying he’d traveled with Mr. Mutombo as their two organizations worked on health issues in Africa.
“All of us at The Carter Center honor his humanitarian work in Atlanta and abroad. Dikembe Mutombo was a truly great person. There will never be another like him,” Mr. Carter said on X.
Mr. Mutombo’s interest in medicine preceded his embrace of basketball, which he started playing seriously only after arriving at Georgetown University on an academic scholarship and declaring a pre-med major.
Soon, he was recruited by the university president and basketball coach and faced a stark choice: His labs were scheduled at the same time as basketball practice his first year.
He chose the latter, eventually going on to study linguistics and diplomacy, fields that served him well after he retired from the NBA in 2009.
Read more from this 2013 Global Atlanta story:
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