Dikembe Mutombo is a Hall of Famer

Dikembe Mutombo never won an NBA title, and he couldn’t lead his Georgetown Hoyas to the national championship, but it speaks to both his talent and character that he was able to offer legitimacy to every team he joined. Every team, player and person that has ever come in contact with Dikembe Mutombo has been a greater individual for it.

(Save for the ones that had their shots rejected by the NBA’s all-time leading shot blocker, but let’s follow Dikembe’s lead and be cheery with this.)

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Mutombo, a native of the Congo, didn’t come to Georgetown as most other Hoyas did. He wasn’t some star stateside high school player working in gyms littered with college coaches in the stands and hallways. He came to America to be a doctor, but Hoyas coach John Thompson would have none of that and recruited him to the basketball team. Mutombo, who spoke nine languages and interned at Congress between school years, finished as Georgetown’s third all-time leading shot-blocker before graduating – a remarkable achievement for someone who was only a starter for two seasons

From there he joined a moribund, afterthought Denver Nuggets franchise that at the time was known for two things – running a lot, and never playing defense. Under coach Paul Westhead the Nuggets gave up over 130 points per game in 1990-91, and this wasn’t just a reflex of the team’s league-leading pace factor. The 20-win Nuggets were also dead last in defensive efficiency that season, which accounts for pace, and Mutombo (an All-Star in his first season in 1991-92) helped the Westphal-led Nuggets to defend all the way into the middle of the pack in that realm in just his rookie year.

A historic first round upset followed two years later, with Denver becoming the first eighth seed in NBA history to topple a top seed in its 1994 upset of the SuperSonics, with Mutombo famously clutching the ball after the buzzer sounded following a series-deciding Game 5 win:

Dikembe averaged 6.2 blocks per contest in the series, and was the guiding force in Denver’s near-upset of the Utah Jazz in the second round (which went to seven games). With the pressure on the following year, however, the Nuggets stagnated. The team went through three coaches, LaPhonso Ellis missed most of the season with an Achilles tear, and it bowed out in the first round. With Bernie Bickerstaff now running the show on the sidelines and front office, the Nuggets made an astute move to trade up to acquire Antonio McDyess, but a lottery-bound season in 1995-96 left Mutombo itching to move on.

It was a heady summer, by now Dikembe had led the NBA in blocks per game three times while averaging a double-double, and he watched a busy 1996 trade deadline lead into massive amounts of stars looking to change or at least consider the idea of change of switching teams. Mutombo was in his prime, he’d already put the Nuggets back on national TV and he was about to enter his prime. He’d also taken them about as far as anyone could.

Thanks to a series of trades, Atlanta’s core of Steve Smith, Mookie Blaylock and Christian Laettner was solid enough, but they needed someone to bring the sort of legitimacy that seems to follow Mutombo everywhere. Signed to a free agent deal, Mutombo’s Hawks made the second round of the playoffs in his first year while giving Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls a semi-scare, but the same team lost in the first round to Charlotte the following season and were upset by the eighth-seeded New York Knicks in a listless showing in 1999. The team missed the postseason entirely in 2000, even in a terrible Eastern Conference.

The aging core had run its course. Mutombo added a pair of rebounding titles to his resume and remained an All-Star, but the 34-year old free agent to-be entered 2000-01 as the league’s top trade target. As that season moved along a surprising Philadelphia 76ers team started to shed its underachieving image while clawing its way up the Eastern ranks. By the time Sixers center Theo Ratliff went down with a season-ending injury, the team was tops in the East and a championship contender.

With little leverage and a middling team, the Hawks did well to secure a top of the line center in Ratliff with perhaps the best backup true center of his generation in Nazr Mohammed for Dikembe, along with Toni Kukoc in the last year of his prime. Again, Mutombo’s presence gave his new team immediate credibility as it stared down a rugged Eastern Conference playoff bracket and the likely presence of Shaquille O’Neal in the NBA Finals. Mutombo battled gamely against O’Neal in the league’s championship, but Philadelphia fell in five games.

From there, team after team that once coveted Mutombo’s presence and abilities continually gave up on him just one or two or possibly seven years early.

Thinking his best days were behind him, Philadelphia dealt Deke to New Jersey in 2002 just one year after signing him to a four-year free agent contract. After the lone injury-plagued season of his career, New Jersey bought Mutombo out and New York eagerly swiped him up in an attempt to shore their defense in 2003. Giddy at the thought of acquiring his next savior, Knicks prez Isiah Thomas traded Dikembe to Chicago in a package that brought Jamal Crawford to New York in 2004. The Bulls didn’t even bother to play him, sending him to Houston for a package centered on Eric Piatkowski and Adrian Griffin.

Mutombo was still more than capable, even in his advanced age. He spent the next five seasons in Houston, backing up or starting in place of oft-injured center Yao Ming, playing fantastic basketball for any age. He was the starter in 10 wins during the Rockets’ 22 consecutive win streak in 2007-08, and though Dikembe didn’t score as often his per-minute rebounding was as good as ever and his per-minute block rates weren’t far off from his prime. This is from ages 38 to 42, mind you.

A quadriceps injury, suffered in the 2009 playoffs, ended Mutombo’s NBA career. Some six years later, he’ll be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame for his work on the court in Washington D.C., Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, and Houston.

Not before Bill Clinton made him one of 20 recipients of the President’s Service Award in 1999, the highest civilian honor one can receive for volunteer service.

Not before he’d been the guest of honor at George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech in 2007.

Not before personally contributing over half of the $29 million needed to open a massive hospital in Congo’s capital city, in Kinshasa. It was the first of its kind to be built in that area since the 1960s.

Not before receiving three honorary doctorates for his humanitarian work, which also includes needed outreach programs in encouraging polio prevention in Africa, work with the Special Olympics, and a place on the board of trustees for the National Constitution Center.

Now Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo will bring his simple and often ineffable brand of legitimacy to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The place is better for his presence.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops