Bernie Bickerstaff had a plan. Now, he just had to block out the noise around him.
It was 1991. Bickerstaff was the president and general manager of a Nuggets team that had the fourth pick in the NBA draft. He rejected trade requests and attempts by other teams to find out what the Nuggets were up to, not wanting them to know the player he desperately hoped would be available.
Dikembe Mutombo.
“That was the guy we wanted,” Bickerstaff said. “We were looking for someone to anchor the paint.”
The Nuggets were coming off a 20-win season. They ranked 16th in blocked shots. They led the league in scoring, averaging 119 points per game, but allowed 130.8 per game. Opponents shot 51.2 percent from the field.
So, yes, getting someone — anyone — who could play defense was in demand.
Mutombo was all defense, all the time. While starring at Georgetown, he averaged a blocked shot every 6½ minutes. For his career.
“And he was enthusiastic about it, waving the finger,” said John Thompson, Mutombo’s coach at Georgetown. “He took pride in blocking shots and rebounding and doing those things. I’ve had guys who were athletic and tall and were not capable of accomplishing what he accomplished.”
The Nuggets wanted that defensive cornerstone. And, after fending off overtures from other teams, and watching Larry Johnson, Kenny Anderson and Billy Owens get chosen, Bickerstaff made Mutombo the centerpiece of what two seasons later became one of the most loved Nuggets teams in franchise history.
Mutombo is as revered by Nuggets fans now as he was back then. In five seasons, he rewrote franchise records for blocks and rebounds. In his entire NBA career, he did the same. Friday, he will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
“Sometimes when you dream, you don’t know how far your dream will take you,” Mutombo said Thursday in Springfield, Mass., during a news conference for the new inductees.
That dream took Mutombo from Congo in his native Africa to Washington (Georgetown) to the NBA, and now to the Hall of Fame.
And he did it with defense.
Thompson and former NBA commissioner David Stern will present Mutombo during the induction ceremony. Mutombo is Thompson’s third center from Georgetown to be a Hall of Famer.
Unlike the high fliers and pinball machine-type scorers that saturate the Hall of Fame, Mutombo got there doing the dirty work. He defended. He rebounded. He protected the paint.
“I commend (the voters) for being smart enough to appreciate his type of talent,” Thompson said. “I was hoping, had my fingers crossed, that they would appreciate what this kid has done, the impact that he’s made.”
Bickerstaff agreed.
“The reason he’s in the Hall of Fame now is because of his defense,” Bickerstaff said. “You talk about (Bill) Russell, and I don’t think there’s anybody in his class defensively, but Mutombo had this innate intelligence to read defenses. And if you put him out on the perimeter, he had the ability that if you got by him, his recovery and his chase down was right on the money because he knew angles. You think you got a layup if you got by him, but he was there.”
The blocked shots and the finger wag will both be celebrated. But the measure of this man was more than his lean 7-foot-2 frame. Mutombo’s personality and heart played a leading role.
The only blocking he does now is in a side-splitting Geico commercial. Otherwise, Mount Mutombo is a mountain of compassion and inclusion. His humanitarian exploits have been well-documented, and he’s left such a long trail of goodwill that anyone he’s spent time around wants to claim him as their own.
Mutombo soaks it all in with his trademark smile.
“In life,” Mutombo said, “you have to do it big.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
Denver duo
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will induct 11 new members Friday. They include former Denver players Dikembe Mutombo and Spencer Haywood.
Spencer Haywood
Trinidad State product joined the ABA in 1969 with the Denver Rockets. Went on to play 12 seasons in the NBA (1970-83), scoring 14,592 points and grabbing 7,038 rebounds. Four-time NBA all-star (1972-75) and two-time all-NBA first team (1973 and 1974). Leading scorer for Team USA at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (Americans won the gold medal). While playing for Denver, was named ABA rookie of the year and MVP of the ABA All-Star Game.
Dikembe Mutombo
Eight-time NBA all-star (1992, 1995-98, 2000-02) and four-time NBA defensive player of the year (1995, 1997, 1998, 2001). Led the NBA in blocked shots five consecutive seasons (1993-98). The native of Congo attended Georgetown (1988-91). First-round pick of the Nuggets in the 1991 draft. Played in the NBA from 1991-2009, finishing with 11,729 points, 12,359 rebounds and 3,289 blocks in 18 seasons (six teams).
