Free Republic

Dikembe Mutombo, the Hall of Fame center whose playful finger-wags after blocking shots — which he did 3,289 times in his career — became iconic, has died at the age of 58 due to brain cancer, the NBA announced. Mutombo died surrounded by his family, according to the league. His family had announced a couple of years ago that the legendary Congolese big man had a brain tumor. Mutombo played 18 NBA seasons but made a bigger and more meaningful impact off the court, where he had worked tirelessly for years to help people back in his native Democratic Republic...

NBA Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo, one of the best defenders in the league's history, is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, the league announced Saturday (Oct 15). Mutombo, 56, hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and has been a global ambassador for the National Basketball Association for years. He played for several teams throughout his long career, including the Denver Nuggets, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Atlanta Hawks and the then New Jersey Nets.

A private jet owned by a North Texas company has been impounded for the past 2 1/2 weeks and its passengers and crew detained by the Congolese government in central Africa, where officials say it was used to smuggle gold from rebel territories in the nation's eastern provinces. The plane was leased by Southlake Aviation, based in suburban Dallas-Fort Worth, to a subsidiary of CAMAC International, The Dallas Morning News reported in its Sunday editions. CAMAC company is owned by Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-born Houston oil tycoon an appointee of President Barack Obama to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy...

Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo, seated next to first lady Laura Bush and proudly flashing his familiar broad smile, was honored by President George Bush Tuesday at the State of the Union Address in Washington. Mutombo, working almost daily, raised $29 million (donating $15 million himself) for the construction of the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mutombo plans to open the hospital — Kinshasa's first new one in 40 years — this summer. It is named for his mother, who died nine years ago when civil unrest and...