“Basketball was a vehicle that I used to get me where I’m going,” Dikembe Mutombo had said in a 2022 Sports Illustrated interview. And in a way, it could be viewed as such, too. After all, the Congolese-American arrived at Georgetown University with the hopes of following his cousin, Dr. Louis Kanda’s footsteps (a Washington surgeon) in medicine. However, his 7’2 frame soon caught the attention of famed Hall of Fame coach, John Thompson. He succeeded in convincing the then-19-year-old to focus on the hardwood. The rest, we know, is history. Or should we say, was?

There is no doubt that you have already heard of the death of Mutumbo by now. The ex-4x DPOY passed away at the age of 58 due to brain cancer in Atlanta, per a statement released by the NBA. Back in 2022, his family did reveal that Dikembe was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Unfortunately, cancer was one opponent that he couldn’t wag the finger at.

Many came forward with memorable stories and cherished moments following Mutombo’s death. And one of them was Stephen A. Smith. Unsurprisingly, it involved that familiar, deep-throated laughter and thickly accented proclamations. But not before he took a moment to pay tribute to the dedicated humanitarian.

“Knowing him personally, he was simply an angel. One of the nicest human beings you’d ever want to meet in your life. I have never ever in all my years of covering professional basketball, heard anyone say a negative word about Dikembe Mutombo. He was that beautiful of a person,” Smith said emotionally.

A large part of that was because of his humanitarian work. Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo always had his eye on his lifelong goal: helping the lives of his people in Africa. And when he was named the NBA’s first Global Ambassador, the former 8x All-Star helped set a professional league in Africa. But even before all of this, Mutombo had started the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation to improve the living conditions in his native Democratic Republic of Congo.

One of the most prominent endeavors of the foundation was building the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, named after his mother, whom he lost to a stroke in 1997. Although there were funding issues in the beginning, the hospital finally opened in 2007 at Masina, Kinshasa. It was the first modern facility to open in nearly 40 years, where a quarter of the city’s total population live in poverty.

Just one of the many initiatives the late Mutombo did for the betterment of people in his native country. But going back to Stephen A., let’s take a look at what the wholesome instance was.

Stephen A. Smith recounts a hilarious incident about the “offensively challenged” Dikembe Mutombo

“He was an elite defensive player but offensively challenged,” Smith started. Everyone familiar with the late Mutombo would agree with it. While he was an elite shot blocker (the second-most blocked shots, behind Hakeem Olajuwon) and a dominant defensive player, offense wasn’t his cup of tea. But the teams he played for didn’t rely on ‘Mount Mutombo’ to contribute heavily there.

However, that didn’t stop him from trying. And the man took it upon himself to try one of the most prominent and effective scoring techniques in NBA history – Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s sky hook. “I remember one time I went to him and talked to him about the hook shot,” Smith continued.

“He said, ‘Steve. Steve. Kareem, Kareem.’ I said, ‘Don’t you ever say that publicly! Don’t you ever utter those words out of your mouth publicly!’ He was trying to compare it to the sky hook of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and then he just laughed that affectionate, beautiful laugh that he had all the time, letting me know that he was just joking.”

The world did not just lose a basketball legend – it lost a beacon of kindness and compassion in Dikembe Mutombo. His towering presence might no longer grace the court, but the impact he made through his generosity and humanitarian work goes far beyond the game. But none of this would have been possible had Coach Thompson not managed to persuade him to give up being a doctor.

Do you know what he said to a young Dikembe back then? “I know you want to be a doctor, but you can go out to make a lot of money and go out to save lives at the same time.”