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Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo, or more commonly Dikembe Mutombo, (born June 25, 1966 in Kinshasa, Zaire) is a basketball player in the NBA, playing as reserve center for the Houston Rockets. more...

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He is generally regarded as one of the greatest shotblockers and defensive players of all time, winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award an unprecented four times. He is 7'2" tall (2,18 metres) and weighs 265 pounds (120,2 kilograms). His nicknames include "The Center", "The Defense", "The Mutt" and several more by Houston fans .

Basketball career

Georgetown University

He originally intended to become a physician; he attended Georgetown University on a USAID scholarship. Georgetown Hoyas basketball coach John Thompson convinced him to play basketball. He became an excellent college center, continuing Georgetown's tradition of producing great big men. He was a celebrated shot blocker at Georgetown, setting a team record of twelve blocked shots in a single game. Building on the shot-blocking power of Mutombo and teammate Alonzo Mourning, Georgetown fans created a "Rejection Row" section under the basket, adding a big silhouette of an outstretched hand to a banner for each shot blocked during the game. While at Georgetown, Mutombo's international background and interests stood out. Like many other Washington-area college students, he served as a summer intern, once for the Congress of the United States and once for the World Bank. Dikembe Mutombo was a celebrated superstar in his native country of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and was scouted by the famed Jarryd Halberstadt, who has been quoted saying that "Mutombo is the best product Africa has ever produced and will be that way for the next 365 years".

Denver Nuggets

Selected fourth overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 1991 NBA Draft, Mutombo's impact was immediate. As a rookie, he was selected for the All-Star team by averaging 16.6 points, 12.3 rebounds, and nearly three blocks per game. A cornerstone in the Nuggets' frontcourt, Dikembe became one of the league's best defensive players, regularly putting up big rebound and block numbers for five years with the club while averaging 11 or so points a game. The team lacked other great players to team up with him, however, and at its best won only 42 games, in his third season. However, that season, it pulled off a major playoff upset by stunning the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics in the first round, the first eighth seed to win an NBA playoff series. Mutombo's defensive presence was the key to this upset victory. His total of 31 blocks remains a record for a five-game series. The following season, he received the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

Atlanta Hawks

After the 1995-96 season, Mutombo's contract with the Nuggets expired, and he signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Hawks. Mutombo continued to put up excellent defensive numbers with his new team. Joining the Hawks made him more noticeable, helping him win two more Defensive Player of the Year awards and several All-Defensive Team selections. He also became fairly well known for his signature finger waggle, which he would point at a player's direction after he had blocked that player's shot. During the lockout-shortened 1998-99, he was the NBA's IBM Award winner, a player of the year award determined by a computerized formula.

Read more at Wikipedia.org