Beloved finger-wagging Hall of Fame center Dikembe Mutombo, one of basketball's most feared shot blockers, died of brain cancer, the NBA announced on Monday. Dikembe Mutombo playing for the Georgetown Hoyas in Landover, Md., on Jan. 1, 1991. The future Hall of Fame coach, who developed future NBA big man Patrick Ewing and had Alonzo Mourning on campus, convinced Mutombo to turn his attention to the hardwood. Mutombo parlayed his Georgetown play into becoming the fourth overall pick of the Denver Nuggets in the 1991 NBA Draft. "Other than what he has accomplished on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court."

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Persons: Mutombo, Dikembe, Mitchell Layton, Marie Mutombo, ”, Adam Silver, Silver, Mukamba Jean Jacques Wamutombo, John Thompson, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, parlayed, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Joel Embiid Organizations: of Fame, NBA, Georgetown Hoyas, Getty, Democratic, NBC News, Georgetown University, Georgetown, Denver Nuggets, Big East Conference, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe, 76ers Locations: Denver , Atlanta, Philadelphia , New Jersey , New York, Houston, Landover, Md, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, Cameroon