Dikembe Mutombo
January 11th, 2007
Dikembe Mutombo, currently playing for my favourite NBA team, the Houston Rockets, has passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to move into second place on the All-Time Blocked Shot Leader List.
Dikembe has always been one of my favourite players, with his near-singular focus on defence. A graduate of Georgetown (Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning), he has always held his own against other great centres in college in in the NBA.
Who is first on the list? Rockets great Hakeem Olajuwon - the player I emulated the most (or at least tried to) as a teenager. And before some smart alec (I’m thinking one of my younger brothers), I know that stats weren’t kept for blocked shots when Bill Russell was playing, and yes, he would probably be on the top of the list if there had been stats kept.