RABAT, Morocco – There was jubilation outside the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex last Saturday as the Basketball Africa League began its fifth season. Excited hoop fans danced to deejay music, shot basketballs, bought BAL swag and ate hot dogs, chicken kebob sandwiches, fondue and more all night long. Indoors, the BAL games included fast-paced play, a halftime performance by Moroccan rap legend ElGrande Toto and drumming by Fus De Rabat fans.
Before both games began, the festive atmosphere turned down momentarily for a moment of silence to honor late African humanitarian and NBA great Dikembe Mutombo.
“It never felt like a drag for Dikembe,” BAL president Amadou Fall told Andscape. “He showed up everywhere, wherever we needed him. If you have a Hall of Famer with that attitude and commitment, you’re going to be relevant wherever you are. His contribution brought a spotlight to everything we did.”
The four-time NBA Defensive Player of the year was a BAL, NBA Africa and NBA ambassador. The eight-time NBA All-Star mentored African players from the NBA and BAL with passion, willingly did interviews promoting African basketball and became the face of the BAL as its chief promoter and investor. Just by Mutombo being Mutombo, he naturally became the godfather of African basketball.
The way the African basketball community looks at it, there is no way to replace the legendary African humanitarian and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer.
“It’s that simple. No,” Masai Ujiri, the Toronto Raptors’ chairman and vice president, told Andscape. “We can all do things to continue this movement. But replace? No. His impact was incredible. Unmatched. He paved the way. He showed up. He showed up for others. A way to replace Dikembe Mutombo? No.”
Said Fall: “I’m not saying there is anybody equal. But at least there will be a whole lot (of African players) that will be influenced by how he did it.”
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Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo made his trek from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1988 on a USAID scholarship to Georgetown University and eventually traded in his hopes of being a doctor for a legendary NBA career. Mutombo ranks second in NBA history in blocks (3,289), only behind fellow African Hakeem Olajuwon. Mutombo also had his No. 55 jersey retired by the Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Hawks. BAL players are also wearing “DM55” jersey patches to honor Mutombo this season.
But Mutombo was just as beloved, if not more, for being a humanitarian for the DRC and all of Africa. He was named the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award winner twice for “outstanding service and dedication to the community.” Mutombo, late NBA commissioner Stern and other NBA players met anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 1993 as part of a first-ever NBA African tour. Stern chose Mutombo to become the NBA’s first global ambassador in 2009.
In 1996, Mutombo paid the expenses for the Congo women’s national basketball team’s trip to the Olympic Games in Atlanta and bought their uniforms. In 1997, he established the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation (DMF), “whose mission is to improve the health, education and quality of life for the people in the Congo.” Mutombo opened a $29 million hospital in 2009 near the Congo’s capital city of Kinshasa, where 7.5 million people live in poverty and more than 1 million have already received care. Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, named in the memory of Mutombo’s mother, has treated more than 200,000 people, according to Georgetown. He also built a tuition-free school in the DRC to honor his father.
Mutombo promoted basketball globally through Basketball Without Borders in Africa, played in the 2015 NBA Africa Game and attended the game in 2018. Through still-for-sale Mutombo Coffee, he sourced beans in recent years from African coffee farms from participants in its Women in Coffee Initiative. There were also countless other meaningful things that Mutombo did in Africa that will continue to make an impact.
“[Mutombo] was one of the guys who was trying to bring African basketball all together,” Golden State Warriors forward Kuminga, a Congo native, told Andscape. “He spread it out throughout the African community. He wasn’t just about the Congolese community…
“He used to fly all over Africa to do things. Open up camps. Opening up schools. Searching for African talent. I don’t know who else was doing it.”
Mutombo didn’t attend the 2024 BAL season because he was battling a brain tumor. And on Sept. 30, 2024, he tragically passed away from brain cancer at the age of 58. Months later, the African basketball community is still mourning.
In his honor, the NBA announced the Dikembe Mutombo Humanitarian Award during the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco.
“Mutombo served as an inspiration for the entire Continent,” NBA Africa CEO Clare Akamanzi said.
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Sensing an untapped basketball market, Mutombo pushed NBA commissioner Adam Silver to invest in Africa with a league and further youth development.
During the 2019 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte, Silver gave Mutombo his wish by announcing the creation of the Basketball Africa League to begin in 2020. An emotional Mutombo told Silver in his storied raspy voice, “You made my dreams come true.” Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the BAL debuted in 2021 under bubble conditions and fans weren’t able to attend until the 2022 season. As predicted by Mutombo, the BAL is already bearing fruits that are making an impact on the NBA and college basketball.
Several players from the NBA Africa Academy, a youth development program for elite talent, played games in the BAL before making their mark on college basketball and the NBA. Duke freshman center Khaman Maluach of South Sudan and Florida sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu of Nigeria both played in the 2025 NCAA Final Four, with Florida winning. Maluach is expected to be a lottery pick in the 2025 NBA draft.
Ulrich Chomche of Cameroon became the first BAL player drafted in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft, and he made his pro debut on Oct. 23, 2024. G League Mexico City Capitanes guard Thierry Darlan is also expected to be a prospect in the 2025 NBA draft. There is also growing buzz around Mali teenage forward Mahamadou Landouré, who is playing in Spain for Real Madrid’s junior team.
“We have some young African players really making impact in the league,” Ujiri said. “Ex-players doing great things. They will all do great things and continue to contribute to a rising Continent. The numbers of the youth population say it all.”
Mutombo was also a mentor to countless NBA players with African ties. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has Nigerian family ties, was told by Mutombo as a rookie about the importance of taking care of his body for longevity in the league.
“Great guy. He was always one of those guys you can go up to and seek advice,” Antetokounmpo said. “He would tell you about how the NBA works, how you would be a pro, how you should work on your body. I was able to meet his family. He was able to meet my family, too, the first time I did the NBA Basketball Without Borders in South Africa.
“We’re definitely going to miss him. I wish the best to his family and all the people who loved him and were around him his whole career, his whole life.”
Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images
The best way for African basketball to fill Mutombo’s void on and off the court will likely be with current and future African basketball figures.
Fall has been instrumental in leading the BAL from its inception and in 1996 founded the SEEDs (Sports for Education and Economic Development) in Senegal that developed players such as former NBA center Gorgui Dieng. Ujiri is the founder of Giants of Africa, a charity organization that uses sport as a tool to enrich the lives of youth in more than 17 African countries and creates opportunities for them on and off the court. Dieng has impacted his native Senegal by donating life-saving medical equipment and supplies, building demonstration farms to help support sustainable agriculture and better equip farmers, and also offering nutritious food.
Former NBA players Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Pops Mensah Bonsu, Ian Mahinmi and Festus Ezeli and former WNBA star Chiney Ogwumike are all BAL ambassadors. Noah, a two-time NBA All-Star, was one of the youngest investors in BAL and has built courts in Cameroon and Nigeria. Ogwumike, Akamanzi and WNBA star Jewell Loyd are role models for African women in basketball. Deng self-funded the South Sudanese men’s basketball team that played in the 2024 Olympics. NBA guard and coach Sam Vincent, who also coaches BAL South Africa’s Made By Ball, believes Olajuwon could be up to the task to make a bigger impact after Mutombo’s passing. There are numerous other former NBA and international players from Africa who are also making a difference.
Noah says he has taken strong inspiration from Mutombo.
“It was more than the words that he said. He showed up,” Noah told Andscape. “Dikembe really showed up. What an honor to be a part of the BAL platform and what it meant to him, and to spend time with him working on the Continent, something he was doing his whole career. It’s inspiration that every time we put in work in the Continent, we think of him.
“It’s hard to put into words what Dikembe means to the world, especially on the Continent. Obviously, Dikembe was so much more than a basketball player. Still to this day, we look at the work that he put in as inspiration. We love the time we spent with Uncle Dikembe. Nothing but love. We’re in Morocco showing love on the basketball courts, but it is always in Dikembe’s honor. Nothing but love for Dikembe.”
In terms of Africans in the NBA, there are several stars to keep an eye on that have the potential and platform to make a Mutombo impact like Antetokounmpo, Kuminga and NBA stars Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam, who are both from Cameroon. Kuminga is still trying to figure out how best to make an impact in the coming years in his native Congo. Washington Wizards rookie forward Alex Sarr hopes to make an impact in his father’s native Senegal in the coming years. San Antonio Spurs All-Star center Victor Wembanyama’s father is also from Congo. Brigham Young signee AJ Dybantsa, widely regarded as the nation’s top high school senior in the Class of 2025, has said he would like to use his growing platform to have an impact in his father’s native Brazzaville, Congo, and Africa.
“Hopefully, I can be one of the [faces of Africa basketball]one day,” Kuminga said. “It’s a work in progress. It’s something I’m looking into and have been thinking about. It’s going to take time. Hopefully, I can help somehow. I won’t be perfect or better, but hopefully one of those guys helping to follow in his footsteps. Who wouldn’t want to? [Mutombo] was a legend, a great person.”
When asked if he would like to be the face of African basketball post-Mutombo, Antetokounmpo said: “Right now, to be honest, I’m just trying to figure out how to play basketball. I have a lot of things on my plate. How to be the best husband possible. The best father possible. So, that is pretty much on my agenda right now.
“But who knows? When I retire that is a possibility.”
ESPN reporter Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.