Dikembe Mutombo

Dikembe Mutombo was a Congolese-American professional basketball player born June 25, 1966, in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire, who died on September 30, 2024. Drafted fourth overall by the Denver Nuggets in 1991, he played center in the NBA for 18 seasons, making eight All-Star teams and winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award a record-tying four times, while leading the league in blocked shots three times and rebounds twice; his 3,289 career blocked shots rank second in NBA history behind only Hakeem Olajuwon. He reached the NBA Finals with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2001 and the New Jersey Nets in 2003, had his number 55 jersey retired by both the Denver Nuggets and the Atlanta Hawks, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.