| 22 April 2009
For those at the Rose Garden on Tuesday night for Game 2, I don’t think the severity of Dikembe Mutombo’s career-ending injury will sink in for some time, even if you’ve already made the road trip down memory lane.
Saturday night after Game 1, I sat in the Houston Rockets locker room waiting to speak with Ron Artest. As I waited, I listened and watched five feet away as Mutombo was being interviewed by Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who was in town doing some work for NBA TV.
Deke – sounding like Cookie Monster for those that know the distinguished voice – was laughing it up with Isola as the two reminisced about their days in New York with the Knicks - the fingerwaging; the humanitarian work.
Four days later, Mutombo was on the other end of his emotions.
He had just experience the most excruciating pain of his storied 18-year career: a late first quarter foul on Greg Oden that sent the 7’2 center from Georgetown to the floor in a heartbreaking heap. There he writhed in pain until a small emergency team wheeled him off the court on a stretcher, flanked by his teammates and hearing the applause of a standing ovation from the Rose Garden faitful.
Fighting back tears, Mutombo spoke openly afterwards about what he’d gone through hours earlier.
Playoff irony.
Back in 1994 while with the Denver Nuggets, Mutombo layed on the floor in the paint clutching a basketball over his head in pure joy after helping upend the number one seeded Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
We all remember the scene. Fifteen years later, he was clutching his left knee on the ground in Portland.
As a writer, there is something to be said for being at the right place at the right time.
Security guards standing outside the media room wouldn’t let any writers, reporters or camera folks into the press room. Yao Ming was busy holding court and a presser. Something about a league “rule”. Whatever. No worries. I’m a patient man. The others left. I stayed and waited. And now I’m glad those security guards did their jobs.
Leaning against a wall near the Rockets locker room, players and coaches steadily filed out in minute increments: Artest and Shane Battier. Rick Adelman. Aaron Brooks. Jack Sikma. Elston Turner.
Suddenly I hear someone yell, “watch out now!”
It was a Rockets team official helping clear the way for all 7’2 of Dikembe Mutombo who passed by gingerly on a pair of crutches, his left knee obviously ballooned.
He sniffled, traces of tears left on his face.
As he made his way down the hall and out of the Rose Garden, it was a sight you simply don’t want to see. For us 35-year-olds, who grew up watching Deke hold down the paint with Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Chicago and Houston, it's not the way you want the guy to go out.
But he did.
And to be honest, it still hasn’t sunk in.
pic via: cnn.net
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