Mutombo uses NBA stardom to build off-court legacy

	With Dikembe Mutombo playing almost 28 minutes a game, the Rockets managed to go 20-12 during Yao Ming's absence this year. AP

The birth certificate from the Democratic Republic of Congo makes him out to be 40-years-old. But his NBA colleagues have long joked that the document must be forged because Dikembe Mutombo is years older than that. The punch line? That comes when Mutombo laughs along: Eyes squinting, cheeks bursting, his laughter fills the room like music in a jazz club, and he looks young enough to be a student at Georgetown all over again.

"I used to get mad about it, but now I just laugh," says Mutombo, the 7-foot-2 center for the Houston Rockets. "If they say I'm 50, then I may be one of the best 50-year-old guys running up and down the court with some of these 19-year-old guys. And," he adds, predictably raising his telltale index finger, "I'm still blocking their shot."

Is there a happier soul in any professional sport than Mutombo? Is there a more valuable player in the world today? In a fortnight he will be supporting the attempt by Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and Shane Battier to win their first playoff series.

Even if Mutombo helps guide them all the way through the NBA Finals, it will, by his standards, be a small gift. In July he will open his Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center, named after his late mother, in Kinshasha, the capital of his African homeland.

The facility is the culmination of a monumental, decade-long investment of Mutombo's time, energy and $15 million of his own money. The foreign doctors and Congolese providers serving the 300-bed hospital will treat the epidemics of malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, measles and cholera, which are largely responsible for killing one in five DRC children before they reach their fifth birthday.

"This is going to be the first hospital in my country to have the capacity of three operating rooms and four X-ray rooms and all of the high-technical stuff," he says. "When people are poor, that doesn't mean they have to receive poor treatment."

Mutombo's project drew the eyes of the nation in January when he sat next to First Lady Laura Bush during the State of the Union address.

"The greatest strength we have is the heroic kindness, courage and self-sacrifice of the American people," said President George W. Bush while introducing Mutombo. "Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa, amid great poverty and disease. He came to Georgetown University on a scholarship to study medicine, but coach John Thompson took a look at Dikembe and had a different idea. Dikembe became a star in the NBA and a citizen of the United States. But he never forgot the land of his birth -- or the duty to share his blessings with others. He built a brand-new hospital in his old hometown."

That isn't an easy task when you have to spend at least six months of the year half a world away. His fellow Rockets see Mutombo working the phones as well as meeting with hospital advisers or donors before and after practices. "On the gameday I've cut it to two to three hours," he says. "Though sometimes on gamedays it's a full day. I remember last year I had four meetings in one day, all at different buildings in different parts of Houston. It's not easy to balance what I do with my job, because you need a lot of siesta."

Every game seems to take a heavy toll on him.