San Francisco – There is a joint skill between the former US Professional League stars who played from 1991 to 2009. Many of them can carry out a strong tradition from the Dikhmbe Mutombo finger. After all, they saw the origin closely.
Vernon Maxwell, a long -term goalkeeper, has been specially strong by adding the flour Trash Talk that a few fans heard. When he decreased in a deep voice on Friday, the Florida citizen turned into his novel from the Congolese tone, and he shakes his finger in his index, such as the director of the Tawbikh School and said: “Maxi, it’s best to stay out here. … don’t return here.”
The bit switch is to keep a wide smile behind the soothing finger.
This is how Mutombo did it.
“He had a laughter of the cookie monster,” said Jerome Williams, a veterinarian in the American Professional League for nine years. Everyone knew he was enjoying all the time. These things brought people to him. “
Mutombo, the 7-footed charismatic center that recorded 3,289 banned shots-second place after Hakeem Olajuwon (3,830) in the history of the American Professional League- He died due to brain cancer on September 30. It was 58.
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On Sunday at Chase Center, NBA All-Star is the first basketball gathering since his death. It is a suitable place for Mouombo’s memories, because it was a great performance in the game All-Star. Sand a record in the game All-Star with 19 defensive control balls and three blocks During the 2001 game in Atlanta. All stars had eight times four blocks In the 1995 game in Phoenix As an alternative to Cidrick Seblos.
We put one question to his contemporaries during a meeting in Retired basketball players Association In Francisco Hall at San Francisco Hotel: What do you think when you think about Dikhembe Mutombo?
Antonio Davis, power striker/center, 1994-2006
Davis was the beginning of the eastern team that benefited from a standard defensive group in Motombo (and 22 group) in the game All-Star 2001. It did not take much of his memory.
Davis said: “Dikembe was actually winning this game,” Davis said.
The West team, led by Cuban Bryant, advanced 89-70 in the fourth quarter, so the East coach, Larry Brown, turned late in the game in a way that was exposed to a unique mottobo skills group.
“Larry Brown has decided in those six minutes, or whatever, to win in that game,” Davis recalls. At this stage, everyone verified their arrogance and said: “Well, what do we need to do? “Larry decided to go with Dikembe, and in fact, four guards. When you have allen iverson in your team and you will get these other players who pushing the ball up and making things happen … they had no answer for that.
“Tell Dikhembe:” Listen, all we need for you is apostasy and prevention of shots. “Everything gathered, and it was a beautiful thing.”
The East chanted again to win 111-110, surpassing the West 41-21 in the fourth quarter.
Davis loves to tell contemporary players that they are lucky because they did not play in an era when the dominant positions toured the ground.
“I try to tell them,” O comrades do not have that night outside, as a man like Dikembe protects basketball in all angles. “You see that these men come to fly in all this diving and all of that? This will not happen! Not with this man! “
Mutombo was a private player and a special person, especially outside the field. Moombo Humanitarian efforts He promotes his career in basketball.
Davis said: “Dickbe, first of all, was a huge person,” Davis said. “I lived in Atlanta. I attended a few of his events when he was collecting money for special reasons. I just remember him outside the field than I do in court because of this wonderful work. It is painful to lose such a man, especially a brother in this basketball community.”
In 2013, Mutombo helped Mutombo at NBA FIT All-Star Youth in Houston. (Brett Davis / USA today)
Jerome Williams, Power Forward, 1997-2005
You will not find a player called “Junkyard Dog” will need reassurance. But he was happy Mouombo was beside him.
He said: “If you are with him, you will not have to worry.”
This soothing existence has proven that it is invaluable through a trip to Botswana. They were on a camp late in one night when someone in the group began to include predators in the dark.
“They said:” there is a dye here, a few of the leopards. “” They were calling all these animals, and Dikembe like, “don’t worry, Jerome. If they ate someone, they eat me first.”
Williams laughed at memory.
“I told him, don’t do! You are so big for that! They will run from you!”
Williams, like Mutombo, played the kidney ball in George Town. He is still grateful forever for the great men of men who formulated a bond at the time. He said that Motumbo helped to follow his dreams with the summer running with his colleague Georgetown Alums Patrick Iwing and Lonso Morning. Williams said he and Motombo often ended with the same team.
Motumbo taught Williams that the art of blocking the snapshot was using the “arm” to disable the shooter.
“He collided first, then climbed and prevented the snapshot. Williams said:“ This was his brand. ”His arm was from God, but no one could prevent bullets like Dikembe. For this reason is the Famir Hall. “
More than anything, Williams remembers the trips to Africa. In 2007, a hospital in Kinshasa opened directly outside his hometown, and he was named his mother, Pampa Mary Moombo.
The facility consisting of 300 beds has treated more than half a million patients. Motumbo funded $ 15 million from a $ 29 million project.
This was a huge task. “You have such a man, with this kind of passion to get back, he was great to see him,” Williams said. “He is the only person I would go to Africa because he did not treat you as if I was a guest. I have worked as if I were part of his family, which made you feel that you are part of the African community.”
Williams strengthens a picture of himself as an honorary member in the Zulu tribe, along with his colleagues, the American Professional League players such as Darfin Ham and Marcus Campbi.
Williams said, “This is what Dikembe did,” Williams said. “I kissed you where I was and made you feel like you are a family.”
Vernon Maxwell, Guard, 1989-2001
Maxwell was born in September 1965. Motumbo was born nine months later. But it seems that the wisdom of Motumbo and its rank is distorting time.
“I felt he was older than me,” Maxwell recalls. “A great father, a great soccer player. But things are players, that was just ice on the cake. I mean, it was just a great man.”
As a 6 -feet -length guard, 4 and 180 lbs, Maxwell has never had to do the noise in the paint with Motumbo, such as other American professional league graduates. But as a person driving the corridor, Maxwell respects how the big man understood his craft.
He said: “He always knew the timing of the bloc.” “You should be good from the feet, jumping from the feet quickly. After that, you must have a long arms. He did it throughout his career. That’s what it was, diluted.”
Did you get you before?
Maxwell laughed.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “I got everyone.”
This means that Maxwell was a victim of Motumbo finger. However, like others, remember it is more nascent than that of discomfort. As evidence of his personality, mutombo may look like, even during the show.
Maxwell said: “He was just a beloved man, inside and outside the earth.”
A Denver Nags employee wore a shirt in reference to Dikbe Mutombo shortly after his death in 2024 (Ron Chinoi photos / imagn)
Cliff Robinson, Power striker/center, 1979-89, 1991-92
Listed in 6 feet and 9, the profession of the player “Tree Top”-from He played 11 American Professional League seasons with six teams – Overlap with mutombo for a short period. They were two large ships that pass at night. Robinson only played a handful of games during his last season, 1991-1992, which was the rising Motombo season.
However, they became friends. When asked about Mutombo, Robinson arrived in his phone and passed it until he found a picture of them smiling together.
“I love this man,” said Robinson. “This is my shout there.”
Since he was older, Robinson grew up hearing the wisdom of banning bullets from Bill Russell, the Famir hall, which will be in the list of blocs at all if they had returned throughout his professional days. In Motumbo, Robinson said, Russell was a heir worth.
“I remember hearing Bill Russell speaking over the years, saying:” They shot, these men prevent bullets, but it comes out of the border. “He took a problem with that.
Mutombo has led the American Professional League in blocks three times and was the choice of a team before each time. But the more Robinson speaks, the less recovery, blocs, or anything else in the statistics sheet compared to the larger Mutombo imprint.
It was not a matter of basketball with him. It was about life. “It was about the help of people,” Robinson said. “I used basketball just to get things to help more people.”
(Photo: Leigh Vogel / Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
