The Dikembe Mutombo Foundation will donate 466 hot meals for the front-line health professionals at Grady Memorial, Piedmont and Phoebe Putney hospitals in Georgia. Mutombo said, “166 of those meals will go to the front-line health workers at Phoebe Putney hospital in southwest Georgia because it is at the center of one of this state’s COVID-19 “hot zones”. I’m from Congo, so I know about “hot zones” and pandemics.”
The NBA Legend and Atlanta resident knows about “hot zones” because his homeland, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been ravaged by several deadly Ebola virus outbreaks in recent history. Unable to send disease fighters to help battle one of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history, last June U.S. health officials turned to Mutombo, the basketball hall of famer for help. Regarded as one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history and a well-known philanthropist in his native Congo, Mutombo recorded radio and video spots in three African languages designed to persuade the people in the Congo to take the appropriate safety precautions and get care that might stop the disease’s spread. On March 2nd , Dr. Philip M. Ricks, of the CDC’s Global Disease Detection Operations Center reported to the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, “some good news about Ebola. No new cases in seven days”. This report was the first time since the beginning of the disease response that no new confirmed cases were reported over a seven-day period.
One major project of the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation was the construction of the Biamba Marie Mutombo hospital in the capital city of Kinshasa, DR Congo. This general hospital named in memory of Mutombo’s mother opened in December 2007 and to date almost 500,000 men, women and children have been treated there. Absolutely no one is turned away for an inability to pay.
Dwight Howard told ESPN that he believes he is a Hall of Famer.
Is he right? Good question. Let’s compare Dwight Howard’s resume to recent Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo.
Both are 8x All-Stars; Howard was first-team All-NBA five times, Dikembe none. Deke won the Defensive Player of the Year Award four times; Howard three times. Also, Howard averages more points, rebounds, assists, and steals than Dikembe. Deke does average more blocks per game than Howard(2.8 to 2.0). Finally, if you do the eye test, Howard was a big reason why the Magic made it to the NBA finals in the 2008-09 NBA season. Deke made it to the NBA Finals in 2001 with 76ers, but that was Allen Iverson’s team.
End of the day, forget how you feel about Dwight Howard. I know a lot of you hate him, but if Dikembe Mutombo is in the Hall of Fame, Dwight Howard belongs too!
