Amid the tears following the death of Dikembe Mutombo, there were fond memories that evoked laughter.
Mutombo was larger than life – both in physical stature and personality. Those traits were remembered by many following the announcement of his death because of brain cancer at the age of 58 on Monday. They wiped away the tears long enough to remember the moments that gave so many reasons to smile.
When a 7-foot-2 native of the Congo falls off a horse, well that’s one of those memories.
Former Hawks general manager Pete Babcock often would take players on an offseason trip to a Native American reservation to work with youth.
One year, Steve Smith, Alan Henderson, Mutombo and Babcock went to a reservation in North Dakota. Along with them was a film crew from “NBA Inside Stuff.” During a dinner with the tribal council on the first night, Mutombo asked if they could ride horses while there. Indeed, it was set up the following morning in a corral.
Neither Smith nor Henderson had ridden a horse before and were nervously helped up by handlers. At that point, according to Babcock, Mutombo said, while wearing a cowboy hat with his legs barely off the ground, “What’s wrong with you guys? There is nothing to this. I rode last year in Mexico. If you want to go, you just kick your horse and if you want to stop you just go ‘whoa.’”
At that point, Mutombo kicked his horse.
And off it went, sprinting around the corral. Mutombo did not follow his own advice. Instead of pulling on the reins and yelling ‘whoa,’ Mutombo dropped the reins and yelled ‘Stop, stop, stop!’
After several terrifying seconds, Mutombo slid off the back of the horse against the fence.
“I’m watching as Dikembe is falling off the back of his horse and I’m thinking ‘Oh my gosh, we’re losing our All-Star center from falling off a horse,’” Babcock said.
That was enough for Smith and Henderson to end their rides before they ever began as the quickly asked to dismount.
Now, about that film crew.
“I asked the film crew, you can’t use that film,” Babcock said. “You’ve got to get rid of that film. You can’t show him falling off a horse. They were nice enough to delete it. It never saw the light of day.”
A good laugh was had by all – after the fact.
As he retold the story, Babcock paused and said, “That’s Dikembe.”
Upon return and the start of training camp, the horse story became instant legend among the Hawks.
“There was plenty of laughter as Pete was telling us that story, but Pete’s life flashed before his eyes when Dikembe fell off the horse,” former Hawks vice president of communication Arthur Triche said, laughing as he recalled the incident. “We all said, how on earth did you let him get on a horse? Those are stories about Dikembe. He will be missed.”
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