When Daryl Morey first became general manager, he was 34, and the era of “Moreyball” had yet to sweep the NBA. He was in Houston, where then-40-year-old Dikembe Mutombo was still contributing on the court for the Rockets.

“He was someone I went to all the time,” Morey, now Philadelphia’s president of basketball operations, said during Monday’s Sixers media day. “He was older than me, which is quite rare.”

The NBA announced this on Monday Mutombo had died of brain cancer. He was 58.

Morey interrupted his news conference at the Sixers’ practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, to briefly talk about Mutombo, an NBA Hall of Famer whose shot blocking and defensive skills helped Philadelphia to the NBA Finals in 2000-01.

“I knew him personally. We were together in Houston for many seasons,” Morey said. “It’s obviously very important to the Sixers franchise as well. There aren’t many guys like him. … Obviously we don’t have to talk too much about his performance on the field, but what he did off the court for Africa is just a great person. Rest in peace, Dikembe.”

Mutombo played two seasons in Houston while Morey was GM. He retired in 2009 and was inducted into the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

Mutombo finished his playing career as one of the best defensive centers ever. Only Hakeem Olajuwon blocked more shots in NBA history – he had 3,289 career blocks, most of which were followed by his famous finger wag. He won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year four times, including the ’00-01 season when the Sixers acquired him from the Atlanta Hawks in a midseason trade.

Philadelphia traded for Mutombo in preparation for a potential NBA Finals matchup with Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal. The match came about when Mutombo helped round out the Sixers’ lineup. The Sixers won the Eastern Conference, but could not beat the Lakers in the finals. They were the only team to beat LA in the 2001 NBA playoffs.

Mutombo was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and moved to the United States to play college basketball at Georgetown University. The Denver Nuggets drafted him fourth overall in 1991, and he played for six teams in his 18-year career.

While his basketball resume speaks for itself, Mutombo had an impact on the world off the court. In 1997, he founded the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation in Congo, with the aim of improving health, education and quality of life in the African country. In addition, Mutombo served on the boards of Special Olympics International, the CDC Foundation and the National Board for the US Fund for UNICEF. He later became the NBA’s first global ambassador.

“He was a humanitarian at heart. He loved what the game of basketball could do to positively impact communities, especially in his native Democratic Republic of Congo and across the African continent,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in a speech. statement. “I had the privilege of traveling the world with Dikembe and seeing firsthand how his generosity and compassion uplifted people.”

Sixers superstar Joel Embiid was born in Cameroon and later came to the US, where he started playing basketball as a teenager. In 2022, Embiid became an American citizen and even won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Spoke for the first time since then on Monday signing a contract extensionEmbiid expressed his condolences to the Mutombo family.

“It’s a sad day, especially for us Africans and actually for the whole world, because apart from what he accomplished on the basketball court, I think he was even better off the court,” Embiid said. “He’s one of the guys I look up to when it comes to having an impact, not just on the field, but off the field. He’s done a lot of great things. He’s done a lot of great things for a lot of people. done great things.” was a role model for me.”