Dikembe Mutombo
Teams
Denver Nuggets - 1991-96
Atlanta Hawks - 1996-01
Philadelphia 76ers - 2001-02
New Jersey Nets - 2002-03
New York Knicks - 2003-04
Houston Rockets - 2004-09
Playoffs
Appearances - 13 (1994,1995,1997,1998,1999,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2007,2008,2009)
Conference Finals - 1 (2001)
NBA Finals - 2 (2001,2003)
Championships - 0
Awards and Honors
All-NBA Second Team - 1 (2001)
All-NBA Third Team - 2 (1998,2001,2002)
Defensive Player of the Year - 4 (1995,1997,1998,2001)
Hall of Fame - 2015
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Total Blocks - #2
Blocks Per Game - #7
Total Rebounds - #21
Rebounds Per Game - #52
Field Goal Percentage - #74
League Leads
Blocks Per Game (#1-1994,1995,1996, #2-1997,1998,2000, #3-1993, #4-1999, #5-1992,2001,2002)
Total Blocks (#1-1994,1995,1996,1997,1998, #2-1993,2000, #4-1999,2002, #5-2001)
Total Rebounds (#1-1995,1997,1999,2000, #2-2001, #3-1993,1994,1998, #4-1996)
Rebounds Per Game (#1-2000,2001, #2-1995,1997, #3-1992,1993,1996,1999, #4-1998)
Field Goal Percentage (#2-1994,2000)
When Dikembe Mutombo left the Congo to attend Georgetown University at age 21, it wasn't to play basketball, it was to study medicine. At 7'2", he drew the attention of the basketball coach, who talked him into joining the team, and he went on to win the Conference Defensive Player of the Year award in both his junior and senior years, and he was drafted #4 overall by the Denver Nuggets.
He made an immediate impact in Denver, averaging 16.6 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game, and was named an All-Star. He would never score near that much again, but his rebounding and blocks would continue to rise for several more years.
In 1994, Mutombo led the league in blocks for the first time, swatting 4.1 shots per game, and he led the Nuggets to one of the biggest playoff upsets of all time. Denver was facing #1 seed Seattle in the first round, and after falling behind 0-2, they came back to win 3 straight to become the first 8-seed ever to win a playoff series. He set a record in that series by blocking 31 shots, the most ever in 5 games in the playoffs.
He won his first Defensive Player of the Year award the next year and won the blocks title two more times, but the Nuggets weren't making progress, failing to win a single playoff game in those 2 years, so Mutombo left as a free agent to join the Atlanta Hawks.
Mutombo won the Defensive Player of the Year in each of his first 2 seasons with the Hawks, averaging nearly identical stat lines in each season, with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks per game. A couple of years later, he led the league in rebounding for the first time, grabbing a career-high 14.1 per game, then did it again in 2001.
Mutombo was traded in the middle of that season to the 76ers, who were #1 in the East, but had just lost their center for the season. He won his record-setting 4th Defensive Player of the Year award that year to go with the rebounding title, and reached his first NBA Finals led by Allen Iverson. In Game 7 of the Conference Finals, Mutombo led the way with 23 points, 19 rebounds, and 7 blocks, but they would fall to the Lakers in the Finals in 5 games.
After 1 more year in Philly, he was traded to the Nets, who were looking to make a repeat trip to the Finals, but he missed most of the season and half of the playoffs with injuries, which gave him the interesting situation of having played in the Conference Finals only once in his career, but the NBA Finals twice. After the Nets lost to the Spurs in the Finals, Mutombo was waived, and joined the Knicks as a free agent.
After one season as a starter in New York, Mutombo left for Houston, where he spent his final 5 seasons, mostly as a backup to Yao Ming, and even though he was playing less than 20 minutes per game, he still managed to block at least one shot per game. He announced that the 2009 season would be his last, and it ended just slightly earlier than expected when he injured his knee in a playoff game.
Aside from his rookie season, Mutombo was never much of a scorer, and his career average ended up below 10, a rarity on this list. He more than made up for that with his shot-blocking, where his average is the 7th-best of all time and his total is #2, behind only Hakeem Olajuwon. He's also #21 in rebounds all-time, and has more DPOY awards than any other player, and for sure belongs on this list of the greatest players of all time.
The greatest defensive player of all-time, incredibly underrated overall player. In this article you say he scored 16.6 PPG in his rookie season, then claim he would never score anywhere near that much again, despite admitting in this very article that he scored 13 PPG in other seasons. It seems to me you are looking for reasons to downplay him offensively. Dikembe was Ben Wallace, but even better, that's an incredible compliment coming from me. Honestly, Dikembe should have more than 4 Defensive Player of the Year Awards. The fact that Gary Payton won the award over Dikembe in 1996 is a joke, no guard can ever possibly hope to be as good defensively as the best big men, it isn't even possible since size and strength are huge aspects of defense.
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