The stories of late NBA star Dikembe Mutombo’s basketball journey just keep on getting interesting. Imagine having 4x DPOY potential and still missing debut season with college because of linguistic issues. Yep, that’s exactly the 8x NBA All-Star faced, as revealed by his former teammate from Georgetown, Alonzo Mourning on The Big Podcast with Shaq.

In conversation with Shaquille O’Neal and Adam Lefkoe, Mourning was asked about his memories of Mutombo back when they were in college together. “I met him when I was 18 years old… He was 22… And he taught himself English… So they [college management] sat him out one year just so he could learn English. And he took English classes and he learned English,” Mourning said. He also revealed that although not proficient at English, Mutombo could still speak nine different languages —  French, Spanish, Portuguese and five Central African languages were some.

“He was extremely articulate. Very, very, very smart, you know… He had a tremendous amount of charisma. All the people on campus, they gravitated towards him… Because of his charisma,” Mourning said on Shaq’s podcast. While there has never been doubt regarding Dikembe’s charisma, him missing one season of college basketball is also true. As per Sports Reference, the 8x NBA All-Star did not play with his college team during his freshman year.

And even when he landed with Georgetown Hoyas in his Sophomore year, the averages at 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game were nothing to scream about. But by his Junior year, Dikembe Mutombo had found his rhythm. Averaging a season double-double with 10.5 rebounds and 10.7 points per game, he also managed the highest blocks per game (4.1) for his college.

In his senior year, Mutombo again averaged a double-double. Only to claim highest rebounds per game as well, along with his second time claim to highest blocks per game. As a result, the 8x NBA All Star closed his college basketball season with a stat line of 9.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game despite his subpar start in his first season; thus foreshadowing the defensive force he was about to become in the big league. Not many, however, know that the 4x DPOY could have been on a completely different path from his college days itself.

Interestingly, basketball wasn’t even Mutombo’s initial calling. He arrived at Georgetown, aged 21, on an academic scholarship with aspirations of becoming a doctor, from the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, fate intervened in the form of legendary coach John Thompson, who saw untapped potential in Mutombo.

Reflecting on that moment in a 2020 interview with NBA on TNT, Mutombo said, “It was a week after I arrived in the U.S. at Georgetown. There was a student who came to get me, and they said that the basketball coach wanted to meet me.” But even this encounter between Mutombo and coach Thompson had a lot to do with chance and destiny.

Dikembe Mutombo could’ve gone unnoticed by Georgetown had it not been for a government official

At 7-foot-2, you’d think spotting him would be a no-brainer. But it wasn’t height alone that brought him to legendary coach John Thompson’s attention. It was a tip from a government official. Coach Thompson shared the story with the Los Angeles Times, admitting he initially brushed off the tip.

“You get a lot of notes,” he explained. “Pictures from overseas can be deceptive. A kid stands back from the hoop, holds the ball up, and suddenly he looks taller than he is.” It’s a fair point—how do you separate fact from fiction in a stack of scouting reports?

But this wasn’t your average recommendation. The official insisted Mutombo was taller than 7-foot Ben Gillery, who was already on the court during the summer league. That claim was enough to make Thompson sit up and take notice. The rest, as they say, is history in the books of not just Georgetown but the NBA.