HOUSTON — NBA legend Dikembo Mutombo is being remembered as a Hall-of-Famer and outstanding defensive player. But the 58-year-old also left his mark with extensive humanitarian efforts during and after his basketball career.
The 58-year-old died Monday after a battle with brain cancer.
While playing for the Rockets, Mutombo told us he came to the U.S. to attend Georgetown and planned to become a doctor after his mother died of a stroke.
"After my mom's death, I was struck because my parents was living just five minutes from the hospital and I felt something needed to be done, to change," Mutombo told KHOU 11.
The 7-foot, 2-inch gentle giant's plans changed after Georgetown Hoyas Coach John Thompson convinced him to play basketball.
It took Mutombo a decade and tens of millions of dollars to build a hospital in his native Africa and he named it after his mother. He was shameless in his fundraising efforts.
"He would literally go into the opposing team's locker room after the game to ask them to assist him in helping raise money for the Democratic Republic of Congo," Houston's own tropical disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez said.
The unlikely pair bonded over efforts to fight diseases in Africa, including polio and AIDS.
Hotez called Mutombo a wonderful and generous man.
When we interviewed Mutombo, he told us the story of how he met his wife of nearly three decades. They were standing in line to get visas in Kinshasha, the capital of The Republic of Democratic Congo. He told Rose that he was leaving the next day for the U.S. but he would call her. She didn't believe him. But the couple said he kept his promise and called her every day for a month.
Mutombo is survived by Rose, their three biological children and four adopted nieces and nephews.