ATLANTA — Last September, NBA great and philanthropist Dikembe Mutombo lost his valiant battle with brain cancer.
The family had a service at the time, but it didn’t allow everyone whose life he touched to attend.
This weekend, his widow, Rose Mutumbo, is planning a memorial service at Georgia Tech.
Channel 2’s Karyn Greer sat down with Rose to talk about how she wants the global ambassador and NBA Hall of Famer to be remembered.
“Living with Dikembe, one thing he taught me was whenever you’re doing something, you just always think in terms of giving back. He really lived a life for a man for others,” she said.
Rose Mutombo is organizing a memorial set for a king and father. Dikembe Mutombo was diagnosed with a brain tumor in October 2022 and died two years later in September.
“The way he loved the people is humility, is a spirit of inclusion, you know, a spirit to never see people because of where they come from or what they’ve achieved in life, but to love them because they are God’s creation, because they’re human being and they deserve dignity,” Rose Mutombo said.
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She told Greer that the service will be filled with dance, and a true celebration of the man who played 18 seasons with little to no injuries for the Denver Nuggets and the Atlanta Hawks, before making Atlanta home.
“We just fell in love with the city. You know, he ended up playing an additional eight years after that, but we landed up in Atlanta and just thought it was a beautiful city to raise our children,” Rose Mutombo said.
She said she has learned her husband touched lives of people she may never know or meet, so she wants to fill McCamish Pavilion in his memory.
“That’s where the idea of this special event on May 31 comes about. I want to create a space where everybody, from all walks of life, from all the way to the top to the bottom, to come and celebrate this giant,” Rose Mutombo said.
Dikembe Mutombo’s celebration of life starts at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 31, at McCamish Pavilion on Georgia Tech’s campus.
The event is free and open to everyone.
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