Nuggets honor late legend Dikembe Mutombo during opener

DENVER—The Denver Nuggets have seven numbers hanging from the rafters at Ball Arena, representing people who accomplished great things for the franchise or defined an era. Dikembe Mutombo is a man who both did great things on and off the court and defined Denver basketball in the 1990s.

Mutombo may be the youngest of Denver’s retired numbers, but he’s the only one no longer with us. On Thursday, ahead of the Nuggets opener, the organization wore shirts to honor Mutombo and played a video for the big man. The shirts featured an image of a waving finger with “DM 55” underneath. While the video was very heartfelt and followed up with 55 seconds of applause from the Ball Arena crowd.

Here are the shirts the Nuggets are wearing tonight for Mutombo pic.twitter.com/UtecDNhDvy

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) October 25, 2024

The Nuggets play a tribute video for Dikembe Mutombo and then the Ball Arena crowd gives a 55 second applause for the Hall of Famer pic.twitter.com/AsyEAv0YTI

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) October 25, 2024

Mutombo died in September, fighting a brain tumor. The Hall of Famer lived 58 years, playing 18 NBA seasons for the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks and Houston Rockets. He played more for the Nuggets than any of the rest at 391 games over five seasons in the early 1990s, including 15 playoff games—some of which where he led Denver to a historic eight-seed over one-seed upset over the Sonics.

“An ambassador, a true global ambassador of the game,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said on Thursday. “We know about his on-court productivity, the shot-blocking. We’re all wearing this shirt with the finger wag. As I mentioned to many of you, I have a picture in my office of him cradling the ball after beating Seattle as an eighth seed, but then I think his legacy is much more than on the court. It’s everything he did for his native country, building hospitals, giving back and that’s what you want to see from people is that when they make it, they find a way to give back and make people’s lives better. And to Dikembe Mutombo will always be remembered as an ambassador of this game, on and off the court, with a huge, huge heart, and I feel really fortunate to have gotten to know him and coached him and spent time with him. And obviously he’ll be missed by many, many people.”

The four-time Defensive Player of the Year, one of which was won in Denver, was voted to three All-NBA selections and played in eight All-Star Games. In NBA history he ranks 20th in rebounds (12,359) and finished with 3,289 career blocks, second to Hakeem Olajuwon (3,830.) Despite only five seasons in Denver his win shares rank 10th best in Nuggets history and he’s first in the team’s books for blocks and rebounds per game.

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