Day 78. Dikembe Mutombo.
On a recent cold, rainy night in Georgetown, a small group of us lounged in over-sized AMC movie theater seats to settle in and watch the story of a legend who played ball only a few blocks away. It’s been just over a year since the legendary hooper and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo passed away and this was one of a handful of limited screenings of a new documentary film on his life and legacy - Mount Mutombo.
The film recently premiered at the historic Beacon Theatre in NYC, and I jumped at the chance to see it myself. It was a touching story of his journey from the Congo to Georgetown to the NBA and beyond. I smiled seeing interviews in the film with some familiar faces - namely Caryl Stern (former CEO of UNICEF) and Todd Jacobson (former NBA Cares SVP) , who both did impactful work with Dikembe over the years.
Dikembe was the first-ever global ambassador for the NBA back in 2009, but his humanitarian efforts to support the people of Africa started long before that. His Dikembe Mutombo Foundation was launched in 1997, and he opened the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital in 2007 in his late mother’s name, personally donating more than half of the $29M needed to build it. Caryl also speaks in the documentary about how it took him nearly a decade to do so, and it took a tremendous amount of effort, negotiation and passion to get a hospital built in the DRC. It’s since served well over a million patients. He also later spearheaded the construction of a tuition-free school named after his father, the Samuel Mutombo Institute.
He was an ambassador for the NBA, as well as UNICEF and Special Olympics. I had the great honor to meet Dikembe and work with him a few times in his role as a global ambassador for Special Olympics International. He was always kind and generous with the athletes, just as you’d expect.
The documentary ended with a beautiful animated tribute to one of Dikembe’s favorite personal sayings which embodied how he lived his life:
“When you take the elevator up, you must send it back down for others.”
He was the embodiment of being bigger than basketball, and of the power of sport to serve others. I highly recommend catching the documentary if you have a chance and also you can learn more about the various causes he’s supported here.
(Oh, and one more small footnote today - a personal thank you to both Fantasy Football for Good and to The Team for the lovely shout-outs today, see below, so appreciate the love! )
