Didnt see it posted Climbing Mt. Mutombo SECAUCUS, N.J., Jan. 13, 2007-- It's the signature quip of 76ers' radio play-by-play man Tom McGinnis while calling Sixers games for WIP in Philadelphia: "Are you kidding me?!" McGinnis said it often back in 2001 when a veteran center was helping Philly to The Finals with every swat, deflection, carom, tip, graze and rejection that his long arms produced, appendages only about as lengthy as his name: Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo. Fast forward six seasons when I had to drop the "Menamin" for "Ginnis" on Wednesday when I saw Mutombo's 19 rebounds and five blocks stat line. All I could say was: "Are you kidding me?!" In his 16th season Mutombo is filling in quite nicely for Yao Ming as he recovers from a broken knee. The spindly 7-2 center out of Georgetown has grabbed double-digit boards in eight straight games and his second swat on Wednesday pushed him past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for second place on the all-time list. "It's amazing, just the way I'm playing,'' he said after the game. "Even to myself, I'm sitting down like, 'Whoa, is Mutombo really playing like that?' I haven't seen myself jumping for a rebound like that for a while.'' You have to love a guy who turned 40 in June, (although Patrick Ewing claims his college buddy to be older), who unabashedfully refers to himself in the third person. I would start saying, "Are you kidding McMenamin?!," but I don't think I could pull it off.
