Dikembe Mutombo 'Welcomed Home' While Promoting 'Hoops For Troops' In Denver

DENVER (CBS4) - NBA Global Ambassador and former Denver Nugget Dikembe Mutombo stopped by CBS4 studios to promote the NBA Cares' Hoops for Troops program, and also have some fun with CBS4's Vic Lombardi.

"You've shrunk a little bit, you're not as tall as you used to be," Lombardi told Mutombo.

"Yeah, because I'm sitting down," Mutombo chuckled while sitting on a couch for the interview.

Mutombo has been traveling around the country to bring awareness to the Hoops for Troops program.

"Hoops for Troops is a partnership that was launched a year ago with the NBA Cares' Hoop for Troops and the Department of Defense and PlayStation," Mutombo said. "This year we're going to be traveling to six military bases ... we just want to have fun and appreciate all the service they are doing. They are making sure we, the people in this country, are safe. We have to do something back for them."

LINK: Hoops for Troops

Most Broncos fans now that Peyton Manning built a children's hospital in Indianapolis during his time with the Colts. Mutombo is another athlete who has built a whole hospital.

"I built the hospital in memory of my mother for $30 million in my country … it's a 300-bed hospital, we're very happy with it," he said. "We run it, myself and my foundation, we run it every day, we control it. It's been great … we have served already almost 150,000 women and children."

Mutombo said he loves coming back to Denver after playing for the Nuggets from 1991 to 1996. Although he went on to play for five more teams, the Nuggets were the team that drafted him out of Georgetown University. He said he would have liked to finish his career in Denver.

"It was a dream for me. With the support of the fans and the community and the business people, I found that this was home and this is where I started my career; this is where my career took off," he said. "For some reason I've never been explained until today why I was let go." (He doesn't elaborate on why he was let go)

One of the most famous taunts of all time in the NBA is Mutombo's finger waggle -- something he did when he blocked a player's shot. It's so famous he's been featured doing it in several commercials. But Mutombo said he got a lot of heat from both players and coaches for doing it.

"I got fined a lot too by the NBA; I lost a lot of money. Sometimes I think I work today as a global ambassador because they're trying to pay me back for all the money they took from me … I took a lot of heat from the coaches. A lot of coaches weren't happy. If you talk to Dan Issel … they will tell you a lot of coaches weren't pleased because the players were getting embarrassed on the basketball court and I should get suspended … the league couldn't do it."

Mutombo's most memorable finger waggle -- Michael Jordan.

"Because it took him about seven years to dunk on Dikembe Mutombo," he said with pride.

On the topic of the Nuggets, Mutombo said the team needs to bring another superstar to Denver.

"I think that'll be something that they need to work on. This is a wonderful city. All of us who got a chance to play here, to start our career here, we still love it. We love the fans and every time we come here we are welcome as if we are home. And from the airport when I got off the plane I was getting hugs from everybody, 'Welcome home, welcome home.' It really did mean a lot to me.

"I would like the Denver Nuggets to come back in the same direction that we had in the 1990s."

Before recording the Hoops for Troops interview, Lombardi and Mutombo did an interview just for fun. The camera focused on Lombardi while Mutombo's head is obviously cut off. Mutombo then bends down to show his face and does his famous finger waggle. Lombardi and Mutombo later trade suitcoats, and as one can imagine, Mutombo can't even get past the first sleeve.

- By Matthew J. Buettner, CBSDenver.com