NBA stars pay tribute to Dikembe Mutombo

NBA stars pay tribute to Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo, who died from brain cancer on Monday at the age of 58.

Transcript

00:00First, the news of the Kimbe passing is sad and our prayers and thoughts go out to his

00:12family.

00:13But when you talk about a great human being, on and off the floor, the things that he did

00:25for his country, the hospital, he's going to be dearly missed.

00:31When you talk about an angel, unfortunately it was taken a little bit too soon.

00:38It's a sad day, especially for us Africans and really the whole world because other than

00:47what he's accomplished on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court.

00:54He's one of the guys that I look up to as far as having an impact, not just on the court,

01:04but off the court.

01:05He's done a lot of great things.

01:06He had his great stint in Houston, which is where that kind of relationship built.

01:13But like you said, the impact of him being a player and then after his retirement, him

01:19globally impacting the game, it's meant a lot to this game.

01:23So it's definitely a tragedy and it's devastating and we're definitely going to miss him and

01:29what he's done, not only for myself, but for the entire game of basketball.

01:34My fondest memory of Dikembe Mutombo, he fractured my face on my birthday in Cleveland with an elbow.

01:45I never even got an opportunity to tell him about that, but yeah, I don't remember how

01:49old I was in Cleveland, my first stint, and I think I was turning 22 maybe.

01:54He was in Houston.

01:55You can do some of the...

01:56You guys can do the research.

01:57Yep, he was in Houston and I went to the hole and caught one of those Dikembe elbows.

02:03And if anybody know about the Dikembe elbows, they do not feel good.

02:08He fractured my face and I went to the hospital that night and I wore a mask for a little bit.

02:13Yeah.

02:14Yeah.

02:15So that is my memory of Dikembe.

02:19Yeah.

02:20Yeah.