If you were fortunate enough to play in the NBA between 1991 and 2009, chances are that you may have had a scoring opportunity thwarted by a seven-foot-two towering rejection into the night sky followed by a defiant finger-wag letting you know, not now. Not today. Not while Dikembe Mutombo was on the court. In his career he blocked 3,289 shots.
This week, Philly sports lost two great athletes who not only gave all to Philly, but all they had. Former Sixers Center Dikembe Mutombo died after a battle with brain cancer. Former Phillie Pete Rose was found dead in his home.
Arriving in Philadelphia with Roshown McCleod as the result of a 2001 trade, Mutombo became Defensive Player of the Year for the fourth time in his career — helping to guide the team to the 2001 NBA Finals with Allen Iverson and helping to fill in for an injured Theo Ratcliff. In Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals — Mutombo had 23 points and eight blocked shots. In the NBA Finals, he helped the Sixers to a 1–0 advantage with a win over Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and the Los Angeles Lakers.
In August of 2002, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets.
When Pete Rose moved into Philly a short distance from Broad Street and the subway after joining the Phillies fourty-five years ago in 1979. Rose wasn’t traded here in a blockbuster deal, he asked to be released from the Cincinnati Reds back in 1978 and signed a three-year $3.24 million deal with the Phillies. Rose would bring America’s oldest, continuous sports franchise their first World Series Championship not only in one hundred years. But ever.
Rose powered his way to a World Series victory for the Phillies — their first on a talented Phillies team including Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. Over his MLB Career he set some MLB records that still stand today including a seventeen time All-Star, an MLB record holder with 4,256 hits, 14,053 at-bats, 15,890 plate appearances, and in twenty-four seasons. He would play in Philadelphia until 1983.
For Rose and Mutombo — they weren’t the greatest players to play in a city that saw Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Wilt Chamberlain, Ty Cobb, or Ritchie Ashburn.
What they did bring wasn’t just everything. It was everything that they had for Philly.
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