‘I wanted to show my finger wag to as many people as possible to prove them wrong’: Mutombo

SINGAPORE — NBA Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo was in Singapore earlier this week for the Jr NBA Asia Advisory Council meeting. The former Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers centre also conducted a clinic for close to 50 Dunman Secondary School students, and met with the media where he shared some of his unique insights on the NBA, Hakeem Olajuwon, his career, and reveals the inspiration behind his signature finger wag. TODAY’s NOAH TAN picks out some of the best parts of the hour-long interview.

Q: Yao Ming has been inducted in the Hall of Fame. When do you think we can see our next Asian NBA Hall of Famer?

A: The game is ready to grow. I would love to see more Asian players coming to the NBA. For some reason, so many of them are hesitant about coming, and I don’t understand that. Nobody is saying that Asian players cannot cut it in the NBA.

Last year when I was in China, I watched so many of those guys playing and I saw the amount of talent they had.

Some of those guys can come to the NBA and play right away. But what is holding them back? I don’t know. In the Philippines, the game is growing great. We would like to see some of them come up and try to get into the NBA.

Tomorrow is not promised, you just have to go try.

Yao Ming himself held back for a year or two before coming to the NBA. When he came, he was able to shine right away.

So there’s certainly room in the NBA for Asian players.

Q: How did you, a kid from a small African village, grow to become an NBA star?

A: I think you can be a star, in any sport. It’s all about your own perception. It’s about setting goals and looking at the future to see where you want to be tomorrow. How do you want to be remembered? How do you want people to see you?

Become the guy that everyone’s talking about. Let people say this is the guy who contributed, who made a difference, and who changed the game.

Life is never about where you come from. It’s about where you want to be. Nobody can stop you from dreaming big, and you must seize any opportunity that comes to you.

For me, I grew up very poor. But I knew the future would be much brighter for me if I just worked hard.

I had to learn a new language and to interact with a society that was different from what I knew. So it was much tougher than people think.

Being coached by (former college basketball coach) John Thompson was not easy either. But overall my life was a great journey, and I’m glad I became successful because I enjoyed that success.

Q: Do you think you trademark finger wag was what associated you with being a defensive presence?

A: Yes, because nobody wanted to listen to me *laughs*. From my rookie days to the time that I stopped playing, nobody could get it.

I said to myself, from day one that I was drafted in the NBA, that I wanted to be remembered and be someone that, when I walked away from the game, was one of the players who made a difference in this game.

But people were going “Okay, whatever. You only played three years of basketball and you didn’t play the game much when you were young. What do you think you can do in the NBA? It’s a different game, a man’s game.” So I was like “Okay, we’ll see.”

This drove me and boosted to play as hard as I did. I wanted to show the finger wag to as many people as I could.

When you look at my third year in the NBA, when we (Denver Nuggets) were playing against the (Seattle) Supersonics in the play-offs. I think I blocked 20 shots in the first two to three games (of the five-game series).

Now, if I was Supersonics coach (George) Karl, I would tell my players not to go inside anymore. But nobody wanted to listen or see how good I was.

They continued to come up against me and in the end, they only managed to help me set a new NBA blocked-shot record. So now I thank all the players who helped me get as many blocked shots as I could when I was playing for the NBA.

Some of them, when I see them, I shake their hands and tell them: “Thank you so much. I would not be in the Hall of Fame if you didn’t drive to the basket!”

Q: Will you be teaching your kids to do the finger wag?

A: Oh yeah, when you’re watching the games today, you have NBA players doing it, NFL players doing it. Now we have baseball players doing the finger wag! Even the politicians are now doing it.

It’s amazing. Whoever thought, the son of Congo, would have his trademark followed by so many people. It’s been great.

Now it’s just a question of me having to collect my trademark fee! *laughs*

Q: You’ve faced some illustrious centres in your career. If it was a straight choice between Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon, who would you go for?

A: It’s a huge gap. There’s no lie about that, and even Shaq will tell you this – Hakeem is one of the most outstanding big men out there. I think his game was different and it brought everything. It brought the style of the game of a twin-man, a four-man and a five-man combined. He was occupying two positions by himself.

Some of us were taught to play only one position. But his game was more expansive than that.

Every time that you faced him, you knew that you were going to be up against it. No matter what you tried to do to stop him.

He inspired me a lot to be who I am today. He opened the door for so many youths who have been told that we don’t have a place in the NBA. We do have a place, because the NBA is a global game.

He opened the door for the African kids, and we all dreamed to be like Hakeem. He was an unbelievable centre.

All of us take our hats off to him, we give him our respect.

Q: You see basketball as a game that can unify people. Recently, you were in transit at the airport in Bruseels when the terror attacks happened. Does this reaffirm your spirit that you want to continue with a programme that unites people, rather than divide?

A: Even before I came to Singapore, I had so many e-mails and text messages from friends and colleagues and family members who asked me why I was still travelling. They said I just had a bad experience two weeks ago.

But I told them that life has to go on. Just because something happens in the previous days, doesn’t mean you cannot live your life like you used to.

Our game has a unifying language, and that is our love of the ball. You can twirl the ball anywhere, in any part of the world.

You can bring kids from different parts of the continents, but you give them the ball and they will start playing the game with the same rules. That’s what makes our game great.

Q: With Kobe Bryant retiring soon, is there a worry that the NBA is about to hit a peak in terms of hugely popular players to promote the game?

A: In the NBA, guys come and guys go. There’s shoes that will always need filling. But somebody else will come to fill those shoes.

The game is full of talents. Every one of them are looking for their moment to shine. The numbers and the names of the players who are superstars in our NBA are much higher than we think. It’s just about which team that guy belongs to.

Just because the guys is not playing in the play-offs or doesn’t win a title means he doesn’t have the potential to be a star.

In any case, Lebron (James) is still there. He’s not going to die tomorrow. (Kevin) Durant’s still there, Russell (Westbrook) is still dominating. So there will always be the rise of another star and a new class that is coming up.

We have so many wonderful young players in college who will be joining the league soon. We’re so excited to see the doors of opportunities opening for our game to shine.