Hall of Fame center dies of brain cancer at age 58

Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo, who played 18 seasons in the NBA and served as the league’s global ambassador after his retirement, has died of brain cancer, the NBA announced Monday.

Mutombo was 58.

“Dikembe Mutombo was simply larger than life,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement announcing his death. “On the court, he was one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in NBA history. Off the field, he put his heart and soul into helping others.”

The 7-2 center was the fourth overall pick in the 1991 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets. He quickly established himself as a force, averaging 16.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game, and finished second in the 1992 Rookie of the Year voting.

Mutombo played for six different teams during his professional career, was selected to the All-Star selection eight times and was named to three All-NBA teams.

But he was best known as a shot blocker – he led the league in that category three consecutive seasons from 1994 to 1996 and was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year four times.

A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mutombo came to the United States to play college basketball for Georgetown University and legendary coach John Thompson.

He played his first five seasons with the Nuggets before signing with the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent in 1996. He then played with the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Nets and the New York Knicks before ending his career with the Houston Rockets.

Mutombo finished his career at the end of the 2008–09 season with 11,729 points (9.8 per game) and 12,359 rebounds (10.3 per game).

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

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