[NOLA.com] Mutombo's gifts will keep on giving

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Mutombo's gifts will keep on giving
Sunday, March 25, 2007

What if magazine covers, sometimes reserved for the overhyped and overexposed, instead fed our hunger for scoops about schoolteachers and social workers? Now that would be crazy.

Britney crazy.

What if we judged our heroes and celebrities on integrity and dignity, and not solely on athleticism or shock value? Now that would be crazy.

Artest crazy.

What if sports fans disregarded news about steroids, arrests and steroid arrests, and instead yearned for news about dedication and community service? What if we celebrated role models like we do models?

Then Dikembe Mutombo would be the biggest star in sports.

"He's one of the most giving people you'll ever meet," Hornets Coach Byron Scott said of the Houston Rockets' center. "I respect him so much more as a person than I do as a basketball player -- and I respect the hell out of him as a basketball player. He is truly one in a billion."

Some athletes make hospital visits. Mutombo built a hospital.

The African native spearheaded the funding for a $29 million hospital in his homeland of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center, named in honor of his late mother, will include a pediatric wing, surgery suites and a women's center.

Mutombo's home country continuously suffers from a health care crisis -- one in five children doesn't live past 5 years old. Since his NBA career began in 1991, Mutombo made annual service trips home and funded numerous charitable projects through his Dikembe Mutombo Foundation (www.dmf.org).

And now with the hospital, as friend Rasual Butler said, "He is truly leaving a legacy."

Butler, a Hornets forward, joined Mutombo and other players last September in Johannesburg, South Africa, for a Basketball Without Borders Africa Camp.

"He told me you've got to start out with doing small things first, start inside of your own community," said Butler, who won the NBA Community Assist Award in January. "Doing charitable work to me is not a pride thing, it's a humane thing. (Like Mutombo), I didn't have the best life growing up, I understand what it is to struggle a bit, and being blessed to be in a situation where my presence alone excites people, it makes a world of a difference for me to see the good feeling it gives people. Anything I can do financially after that, that's a blessing from the Lord to put me in a position where I can do something of that nature."

"Dikembe is definitely an inspiration," Hornets center Tyson Chandler said. "Look at what he did for his country, let alone his community."

Tonight, Chandler will likely meet Mutombo's alter ego in the low post. Mutombo the basketball player is nasty and naughty. The reserve center is a vicious defender and shot-blocker -- No. 2 in NBA history -- known to throw shots into the crowd and an occasional elbow into a jaw.

"If you drive the lane, he might put you down," Butler said. "That's his house. He told people that's why he protects the paint -- he looks at it as his home. So be careful going down there."

Said Scott, who coached Mutombo in New Jersey, "He's not maliciously trying to hurt people on the court. He's a gentle giant. But he is a competitor. He's going to try to rebound, and if you get in is way, you get hit, so be it."

This attitude fueled Mutombo to become one of the greatest defenders in basketball history. The eight-time All-Star won the NBA's top defensive award four times.

But to those children in Kinshasa, his basketball accomplishments are insignificant. His dedication to their health and well-being is why they smile upon his arrival.

"He has a heart as big as his wingspan," said the charitable Hall of Famer Bob Lanier of the 7-foot-2 center. "He's made it, and he's reaching back to help others make it as well."

His unprecedented commitment to his country is just crazy. Mutombo crazy.

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Glad the Rockets have a good character guy on the team. It makes them really easy to cheer for.