The finger wag is back.
It never really left but it’s been on full display this week during the lead up of Dikembe Mutombo’s enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The signature move, done to accentuate a blocked shot during an 18-year NBA career, will likely be seen several more times Friday night during the induction ceremony.
Mutombo has obliged the many who have asked for one more statement of rejection - including during the ceremony Thursday to receive his Hall of Fame jacket.
Mutombo said the gesture of shaking his head following a blocked shot simply did not earn enough respect from the opposition. He needed more.
“I used to block so many shots and, if you look at some of my video, I would just shake my head,” Mutombo said Thursday. “It seems like guys were not getting it. I was asking for respect. Even to my rookie days, I said I had to come up with something. Shaking my head was not working. Maybe telling them to their eyes, “Hey, do not bring this’ the message registered to their brain. It worked. Guys like Shawn Kemp and Vince Carter, they still thought they could bring it. They helped me break the NBA record. I thank each one of them.”
Mutombo, who played four-plus seasons with the Hawks, knows the finger wag is one of the reasons he made it all the way to the Hall of Fame. He finished as the NBA’s second all-time shot blocker with 3, 289. He trails only Hakeem Olajuwon with 3,830. Mutombo led the league in blocks five straight seasons from 1993-98.
The finger wag was not always well received – from the league, his opponents and even by his own team. Mutombo laughed and said that former Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy would often make him run stairs for too many such gestures. He did get a congratulatory phone call from Van Gundy on his induction, a sign there were no hard feelings.
Mutombo would wag his finger at an opponent following a block but the NBA consider the gesture a taunt. It required him to do it toward the crowd if he chose to continue. The home crowd adored it. The opposition, not so much.
Former Hawks general manager Pete Babcock relayed a story how Mutombo once blocked a shot and turned to the crowd to wag his finger. There was one problem. The ball was still live. The victim of the rejection gathered the loose ball and dunked home two points.
“I wasn’t a big fan,” Babcock said. “I told him one time, we were talking about it, I said Dikembe you don’t need to do that. Let the fans do it for you. The fans know that’s your signature. You block a shot, let the fans wag the finger. He said to me no, no, you are taking my game away from me. I said that’s not your game. Your game is blocking the shot.”
Mutombo said former Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens also tried to talk the center out of the gesture, pleading with him that he was slowing down the transition offense.
His teammates, however, loved the move and that fact they could count an opponent’s desire to challenge Mutombo.
“You would chuckle because it seemed like the finger way was just as effective as (Larry) Bird, (Michael) Jordan, Gary Payton trash talking because this is a guy shooting a floater as opposed to trying to make the next pass or the next play,” former Hawk Steve Smith said. “It was almost like people had in their mind ‘I’m dunking on Dikembe.’ No matter what the score, no matter what the possession, they wanted to dunk on Dikembe so he wouldn’t wag that finger. He got under everybody’s skin. He helped me as a player knowing the guy’s not really going to score. He is going to get his shot blocked or Dikembe is going to foul him extremely hard. It was fun. I’m sure it wasn’t fun playing against him.”
The finger wag came back several years ago when Mutombo starred in a commercial for GEICO, sending the groceries of shoppers scattering about a store followed by the taunt of “No, no no.”
The finger wag has been back during an event-filled week culminating with the ultimate honor. Mutombo smiles. He is getting plenty of respect.
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