Dikembe Mutombo Quotes

Food - there's no greater gift.

When you take the elevator to the top, please remember to send it back down so someone else might use it.

God put us here to prepare this place for the next generation. That's our job. Raising children and helping the community, that's preparing for the next generation.

I cannot forget the place that I come from. The Congo is much in need.

When an elevator brings u upstairs, you better send it back down in order to bring others up!

I've always felt obligated to help those less fortunate than me. It's an obligation that anyone who has a chance to be in the NBA should feel and act upon.

After spending more than 17 years playing for the NBA, in the summertime, I always came back to community service and different basketball clinics.

It's not easy to teach a child how to win.

Me as a backup center? Hell no.

The doctors and nurses at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital are saving lives every day and helping improve health care in the DRC which has been ravaged by more than a decade of war and disease.

It's easy to be a spokesman and ambassador for a great organization like the NBA. I thank Commissioner David Stern for putting that trust in me to serve the NBA around the globe.

I believe in the Democratic party, and their philosophy and what they stand for - for the poor people.

My decision leaving the Nuggets was based on the organization not saying they had the cap room to sign me.

I'm so glad I didn't become a doctor, because I do more than any doctor can do. I am an administrator, a CEO, doctor, psychiatrist, an activist, a campaign funder. I think I did well.

I was not very strong growing up, and my uncle used to look at me, like, This kid is not growing up, he is growing tall but he can be broken like a banana.

The NBA is becoming a global game.

It took a long time for me to walk. I was falling down all the time. But I ended up being one of the dangerous men, who broke so many people's noses, which is bad.

I come from a large family, but I was not raised with a fortune. Something more was left me, and that was family values.

Scores of Congolese die each day unnecessarily due to the lack of access to healthcare and modern medicine.

As a matter of fact I've been asked to come when I'm free to play at the White House.

There are people out there dying every day, so when you wake up, you just have to thank the Man Upstairs for another day on this planet. There's not much else we can ask for.

When I was born, my dad and my mom gave me names, but in Africa, when your child is born, especially close family members can suggest names they want to add on.

I usually just speak in English when I'm on the basketball court. For some reason, my mind never even tried to cross any other language when I'm playing basketball.

I am not in politics. 'President Mutombo?' No, no, no. There has never been a politician in my family, and I am not going to try to be the first one.

My favorite memory is my five years with the Nuggets. From my first day to my last day is a great memory. There wasn't a year that I was a Nugget that I didn't think we succeeded.