Dikembe Mutombo will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., on Friday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution spoke with several people close to him during his time with the Hawks for a collection of anecdotes. Perhaps not surprisingly, several have to do with the travel habits of the 7-foot-2 center.
Grant Long, former Hawks teammate
“He was one of those guys who you gravitate to. He commands a presence in any room he walks into. We still laugh about it today, when I see him, that he can’t whisper. He would try to whisper something in your ear and everybody in the room would still hear it. He can’t whisper. He just doesn’t know how to whisper. It’s actually comical. After he was done, we’d look at him and say, ‘Did you actually think no one heard you?’”
Stan Kasten, former Hawks president
“When I was in Washington (with the Nationals), I spent a lot of time with (former Georgetown basketball coach) John Thompson. One day, I said I just talked to Deke. He said, ‘Really? What did he want? He wanted something, right?’ When I came to L.A. (with the Dodgers), our partner and owner Mark Walter and his wife are big philanthropists. She told me, ‘Hey, I met Dikembe.’ I said ‘How?’ And she said, ‘He was looking for money.’
“That’s the thing about Deke. It’s never about himself. Never. He is always looking for funds, always raising money, whether it’s for hospitals or schools or programs in the U.S., in Atlanta, in Washington, in Africa. Everyone who knows him knows he’s coming after you with the great big laugh, great big smile. Yes, he wants money but it’s to help the rest of the world. A lot of people know Deke. They all know him for the same reason. He’s coming to see if he can get your help to do something else good.”
Pete Babcock, former Hawks general manager
Babcock started a program with the Hawks called Fastbreak for Life, where each September they visited Native American reservations to help children deal with life issues through basketball. He brought Mutombo, Steve Smith and Alan Henderson to North Dakota one year.
“Dikemebe was telling Steve and Alan how he rode last year in Mexico. He said he’d show them how to do it and was bragging about his expertise as an equestrian. The next morning before we went to work with the kids, they took us to an area where they had horses in a corral. They put us each on horseback and we each had a handler holding the reins. Steve and Alan, I don’t believe, had ever been on a horse in their lives. Dikembe is telling us all these stories on how he rode in Mexico last summer.
“He gets up on the horse. I have pictures of this. It’s amazing because his feet are almost touching the ground on this horse. There is no way they could find a horse even close to being big enough for him. He’s sitting on the horse with a cowboy hat on. Steve and Alan are a little gun shy but they are sitting there. Dikembe said, ‘All you have to do when you want to go is kick your horse with your feet and when you want to stop you pull back on the reins and say, whoa. That’s all you have to do.’ Dikembe, without warning, he kicks his horse. The horse takes off. The three of us are just sitting there. Dikembe’s horse is now running around the corral. Luckily we were contained. And Dikembe slides off the back of the horse. My heart almost stopped, thinking here goes our star center. Luckily nothing happened. He slides off the back of the horse and Steve and Alan could not get off their horses fast enough.”
Steve Smith, former Hawks teammate
“He thrived on blocking shots. You would chuckle because it seemed like the finger wag was just as effective as (Larry) Bird, (Michael) Jordan, Gary Payton trash-talking. It was almost like people had in their mind, ‘I’m dunking on Dikembe.’ No matter what the score, no matter what the possession, they wanted to dunk on Dikembe so he wouldn’t wag that finger. He got under everybody’s skin.
“He helped me as a player, knowing the guy’s not really going to score. He is going to get his shot blocked or Dikembe is going to foul him extremely hard. It was fun. I’m sure it wasn’t fun playing against him. … That finger wag became a signature move. People are still doing it and Dikembe is still making money off it. His (GEICO) commercial with his finger wag is something to cherish.”
Arthur Triche, former Hawks vice president of communications
“It was the days of pre-NBA charters. We ended up using a charter from a private owner. The plane could barely fit the minimum number of basketball players, coaches and support staff. There were not a lot of extra seats on this plane. Dikemebe would bang his head on the exit sign every time we got on this plane. It got to the point midway through the season that people would say, ‘Do you realize we use this plane all the time? You don’t know how to duck yet?’ He also had issues going to the bathroom on this jet. He could not close the door. You can only imagine him trying to use the bathroom. Guys would always give him the business. We would always have a time busting his chops.”
Alan Henderson, former Hawks teammate
“I would say some of our favorite times were riding the bus. We would land out of town at the airport and take the bus to the hotel. If the bus driver did anything wrong, made a wrong turn or wrong move, everyone knew you were going to hear Dikembe in the background: ‘What are you doing?’ The whole bus would start to crack up. He was tough on some bus drivers.
“I just enjoyed battling with him every night and in those playoff series with the Bulls. I enjoyed it every night being out there with him. He is my first teammate to go into the Hall. I’m excited for him. You could tell when someone is a little extra special at something. I guess the thing you have to do is be that extra special over a long period of time He was able to do that. It’s just an amazing accomplishment.”
