NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo Coming to North Fulton

Here's a treat for Sandy Springs basketball fans. NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo will be the keynote speaker for the North Fulton Chamber’s Eggs & Enterprise breakfast on June 28, at in Alpharetta.

Mutombo, honored with USA Weekend Magazine's "Most Caring Athlete Award," and from FOXSports.com as the most generous athlete in the world, has long been dedicated to improving the health, education and quality of life for the people in his birthplace, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, created in Atlanta in 1997, Mutombo is attempting to eradicate many childhood diseases that have virtually disappeared in developed countries while those diseases are still life threatening to children in the Congo every day.

He was a Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks center. Having retired from the Houston Rockets, Mutombo now spends the off-season traveling throughout Africa on behalf of the NBA, performing at free basketball clinics for as many as 2,000 children per day. Giving back has always been a trademark of Mutombo ever since he entered the NBA in 1991. A former spokesman for CARE, the international relief agency, Mutombo visited the Somali refugee camps in Northern Kenya in 1993 and traveled with NBA Commissioner David Stern and Georgetown colleagues Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning to Cape Town and Johannesburg.

As an Atlanta Hawk, Mutombo was actively involved with Strong STARTS (Schools Taking Action to Reach Troubled Students). He also served as a spokesman for the Atlanta Hawks Team Up program, often visiting children at local hospitals and held a basketball clinic with on-court drills for the Georgia Special Olympic athletes.

Mutombo was acknowledged by President George W. Bush during the State of the Union Address on Jan 23, 2007, and was inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame on June 20, 2007. He earned bachelor's degrees in Linguistics and Diplomacy from Georgetown, and speaks English, French, Spanish, Portuguese along with five African dialects. Mutombo and his wife, Rose, have six children.

The Chamber’s June 28 meeting, which begins at 7:30am, is open to members and non-members alike. Reservations can be made online or by calling 770-993-8806, ext. 306.