Dikembe Mutombo was in Denver in 2014 to celebrate the 1993-94 Nuggets. He’ll be back for a night like this when the team retires his number. (Photo by John Leyba/The Denver Post)
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is usually the one late to this party.
Not this time.
But the Nuggets won’t be far behind.
On Sept. 11, Mutombo will stand on stage at Springfield Symphony Hall to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame. As early as this season, expect Mutombo’s number to be retired by the Nuggets as well. Mutombo’s constantly packed schedule would be the only real obstacle in getting it done.
Of course, he’d happily clear it like a layup off the glass for something like this.
Mutombo is making this the easiest personnel decision the Nuggets make all season long. At least it should be. In a summer in which the Nuggets were given a big collective hug from current and former players alike, it was Mutombo’s arms that held on tightest.
When it was time to surprise fans back on his home continent, Africa, with a short stint on the court during the NBA Africa game against another native son, Hakeem Olajuwon, Mutombo busted out the Nuggets No. 55 skyline jersey, the trademark finger wave and that ever-present smile.
He’d already gushed about the organization in interview after interview after it was announced he was part of this year’s Hall of Fame class.
With all due respect to the Hawks, 76ers — where he played in an NBA Finals — and any other stop he had along the way, the Nuggets have always been Mutombo’s true love.
Dikembe Mutombo, in a game against the Clippers in 1991. (Getty Images)
Mutombo is in love with the Nuggets. And despite the cold-shouldered split that occurred back in 1996, when they refused to pay big dollars to keep the shot-blocker, the organization loves him, too. Few players have been so repeatedly open about how much the city and the organization meant to them. That love will be reciprocated as it should be — with Mutombo’s number in the Pepsi Center rafters next to Byron Beck, David Thompson, Doug Moe, Dan Issel and Alex English.
Normally, the Nuggets have beaten the Hall to the punch. Issel was the first Nuggets Hall of Famer, inducted in 1993. But the team had already retired his jersey in 1985. Thompson? Retired jersey in 1992 and Hall of Fame induction in 1996. English had his jersey retired in 1993 before going into the Hall in 1997.
This time the Hall wins.
But ultimately, the Nuggets are the biggest winners.
Odds are, Mutombo is sure to wag his finger during his induction speech. How could he not? The sight of it remains irresistible to this day. He’ll recount his journey from hardscrabble beginnings to carrying on the-then glorious legacy of great centers at Georgetown to the NBA.
And, being the true diplomat he’s turned out to be, he’ll give the appropriate thanks to Atlanta, Philadelphia and all other organizations that cherished him when Denver didn’t. But he does not hold grudges. He’ll get to the Nuggets, the team that drafted him, the organization he grew up in, the team he helped defy the odds to complete the first 8-over-1 playoff upset in NBA history. He’ll recount the joy of clutching that basketball on the Seattle Center Coliseum court when no one, but no one thought the Nuggets would even sniff victory against the big, bad Seattle SuperSonics.
He’ll find his own way to gush about the Nuggets.
It’s only fitting, then, that the organization allows the city one more night — and then a lifetime — to gush over him.
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com
