Daryl Morey, Joel Embiid pay tribute to Dikembe Mutombo after former Sixers center dies from brain cancer
When Daryl Morey first became a general manager, he was 34, and the era of "Moreyball" had yet to sweep the NBA. He was in Houston, where a then-40-year-old Dikembe Mutombo still contributed on the court for the Rockets.
"He was someone I went to all the time," Morey, now Philadelphia's president of basketball operations, said during Monday's Sixers media day. "He was older than me, which is pretty rare."
On Monday, the NBA announced Mutombo had died from brain cancer. He was 58.
Morey interrupted his press conference at the Sixers' practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, to briefly discuss Mutombo, an NBA Hall of Famer whose shot blocking and defensive prowess helped Philadelphia to the NBA Finals in 2000-01.
"I knew him personally. We were together for many seasons in Houston," Morey said. "Obviously, very important to the Sixers franchise as well. There aren't many guys like him. … Obviously, his accomplishments on the court, we don't need to talk about too much, but just an amazing human being what he did off the court for Africa. Rest in peace, Dikembe."
Mutombo played in Houston for two seasons while Morey was GM. He retired in 2009 and was inducted into the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
Mutombo finished his playing career as one of the best defensive centers ever. Only Hakeem Olajuwon blocked more shots in NBA history — he had 3,289 career blocks, most followed by his famous finger wag. He won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year four times, including the '00-01 season when the Sixers acquired him from the Atlanta Hawks in a midseason trade.
Philadelphia traded for Mutombo in preparation for a potential NBA Finals matchup with Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal. The matchup came to fruition as Mutombo helped round out the Sixers' lineup. The Sixers won the Eastern Conference but could not take down the Lakers in the Finals. They were the only team to beat L.A. during the 2001 NBA playoffs.
Mutombo was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and moved to the United States to play college basketball at Georgetown University. The Denver Nuggets drafted him fourth overall in 1991, and he played for six teams in his 18-year career.
While his basketball résumé speaks for itself, Mutombo impacted the world beyond the court. In 1997, he launched the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation in Congo, intending to improve health, education and quality of life in the African country. Additionally, Mutombo served on the board of Special Olympics International, the CDC Foundation and the National Board for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. He later became the NBA's first global ambassador.
"He was a humanitarian at his core. He loved what the game of basketball could do to make a positive impact on communities, especially in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo and across the continent of Africa," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. "I had the privilege of traveling the world with Dikembe and seeing first-hand how his generosity and compassion uplifted people."
Sixers superstar Joel Embiid was born in Cameroon and later came to the U.S., where he started playing basketball as a teenager. In 2022, Embiid became an American citizen and even won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Monday, speaking for the first time since signing a contract extension, Embiid expressed his condolences to the Mutombo family.
"It's a sad day, especially for us Africans and really the whole world, because other than what he has accomplished on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court," Embiid said. "He's one of the guys that I look up to as far as having an impact, not just on the court but off the court. He's done a lot of great things. He did a lot of great things for a lot of people. He was a role model of mine."