Dikembe Mutombo, the NBA’s Finger-Wagging Defensive Stalwart, Dead at 58

Dikembe Mutombo, the Hall of Fame NBA center, who was a towering defender on the court and an ambassador for the game off of it, has died from brain cancer. He was 58. 

The NBA confirmed Mutombo’s death, with commissioner Adam Silver calling him “simply larger than life.” He continued: “On the court, he was one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in the history of the NBA. Off the floor, he poured his heart and soul into helping others… Dikembe’s indomitable spirit continues on in those who he helped and inspired throughout his extraordinary life.”

Mutombo revealed his cancer diagnosis in 2022, when he announced that he was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. 

Famous for wagging a finger in the face of whoever’s shot he’d just blocked, Mutombo enjoyed a wildly successful 18-year NBA playing career. He was named an NBA All-Star eight times, won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award four times; and though he never won an NBA championship, he played in the finals twice, first with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2001 and then with the New Jersey Nets in 2003. Mutombo still holds the record for the second most blocked shots in NBA history with 3,289, right behind Hakeem Olajuwon (3,830). 

Mutombo was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo and didn’t start playing basketball until he was a teenager, preferring soccer instead. In 1987, at the age of 21, he moved to the United States to enroll at Georgetown University, where he planned to study to be a doctor, before being recruited for the basketball team. 

Mutombo was the fourth overall pick in the 1991 NBA draft, joining the Denver Nuggets and quickly established himself as a major defensive presence (who could also reliably put up 10 to 16 points a game). During his third season, the Nuggets made NBA playoffs history when they became the first eight seed to defeat a one seed, beating the Seattle Supersonics in a best of five series — after losing the first two games. 

As his stature grew, Mutombo found his signature finger-wag move. As he noted in a 2015 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he first would shake his head at opposing players after blocking their shots, but it seemed like many “were not getting it,” so he had to find a more comprehensible gesture.

“I was asking for respect,” Mutombo continued. “Even to my rookie days, I said I had to come up with something. Shaking my head was not working. Maybe telling them to their eyes, ‘Hey, do not bring this,’ the message registered to their brain. It worked. Guys like Shawn Kemp and Vince Carter, they still thought they could bring it. They helped me break the NBA record. I thank each one of them.”

(Unsurprisingly, however, the finger wag was frequently frowned upon as unsportsmanlike. Some of Mutombo’s coaches disapproved of it, and the NBA even banned it for a season in the late Nineties.)

Following his tenure with the Nuggets, Mutombo moved to the Atlanta Hawks, where he spent three-and-a-half seasons before being traded to the 76ers ahead of their 2001 NBA Finals run (they eventually lost in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers). Mutombo bounced a bit during this part of his career, joining the New Jersey Nets and New York Knicks, before finally settling with the Houston Rockets, where he finished out his career. 

During his playing career, Mutombo also emerged as a dedicated humanitarian, a role he threw himself into after his retirement in 2009. Many of his efforts were focused in his home country of the DRC, whether he was building hospitals or fighting to reduce polio. He later became the NBA’s first Global Ambassador and played a crucial role in the development of the Basketball Africa League.