About Dikembe

DIKEMBE MUTOMBO:
Born in the capital city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mutombo is the seventh of ten children born to Samuel and the late Biamba Marie Mutombo. He arrived in the United States in 1987 on an academic scholarship to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. As a pre-med major, his dream was to become a medical doctor and return to the Congo to practice medicine. In his second year at Georgetown, Coach John Thompson invited the 7'2" Mutombo to try out for the university's renowned basketball team. After joining the team, Mutombo re-directed his academic ambitions and graduated from Georgetown with dual degrees in Linguistics and Diplomacy. Mutombo is fluent in nine languages, including five African languages.

Mutombo is a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and ranks 1st in NBA rebounds per game. In August 2002, he joined the New Jersey Nets and that team advanced to the Finals in 2003. In late 2004, Mutombo joined the Houston Rockets.

Honored with USA Weekend Magazine's "Most Caring Athlete Award," NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacques Mutombo of the Houston Rockets has long been dedicated to improving the health, education and quality of life for the people in his birthplace, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Created in 1997, the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation is attempting to eradicate many childhood diseases that have virtually disappeared in developed countries while those diseases are still life threatening to children in the Congo everyday.

Recently, Mutombo and Hall of Famer Bob Lanier led a contingent of current and former players who served as coaches for the Basketball Without Borders Africa initiative. The highlight of the trip was the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation's dedication of refurbished dormitories at Ithuteng Trust, a school for troubled and underprivileged youth in Soweto that Mutombo first visited during the summer of 2003 for the first Basketball Without Borders camp. Children who once slept on the floor and did not have bathrooms now have a safe and comfortable place to live.

As part of the Polio Eradication Campaign in the Congo, Mutombo administered oral polio vaccine to newborns at the Kalembe-Lembe Pediatric hospital and distributed t-shirts with a written personal message encouraging parents to get their children immunized. Despite civil unrest and electricity cuts during the two weeks of the National Immunizations Days, 8.2 million children under the age of five were successfully vaccinated against polio in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.