December 30, 2008 4:17 pm  |  70 Comments

Dikembe Mutombo Is Back In Uniform


Houston strengthened its interior by bringing back 76-year-old Mutombo. Even at his age, the Mount will improve the Rockets’ defensively challenged frontcourt, and help prevent teams like the Wizards from stepping over them.

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This story is filed under: NBA, Other News

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  • B. Long Posted: Dec.30 at 4:18 pm
    Welcome back, Deke! The league wasn’t the same without ya.

  • SLAM ONLINE | Posted: Dec.30 at 4:20 pm
    [...] Dikembe Is Back! [...]

  • Mendel Posted: Dec.30 at 4:21 pm
    Deke glad your back, but why not go for the ring? Sten would have gave you a letter of recommedation to any team you wanted.

  • Moose Posted: Dec.30 at 4:25 pm
    76 year old . . . heh heh.

  • Gerard Himself Posted: Dec.30 at 4:48 pm
    the man with the greatest voice in the history of the NBA. If the NBA only consisted out of frogs.

  • RayRayJr Posted: Dec.30 at 4:57 pm
    76…good one. The Rockets would probably still bring him back even if he was that old lol

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 5:30 pm
    I hope after Dikember retires he admits how old he really is, his birth certificate must be fake, and did everyone know Yi is 3-4 years older then he is listed as? He was actually born in like 84 and it has said 87 since he was “14″ to get him in a younger youth tournament.

  • Codeman Posted: Dec.30 at 5:35 pm
    WHO CARES

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 5:38 pm
    probably the people of NJ, who thought they had a 21yr old 7 foot sf when really he is 24 or 25. That puts him a lot closer to his prime meaning he does not have as much of a ceiling as everyone thought.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 5:41 pm
    AARP lookin boy who learned to speak english by emulating the sound of a garbage disposal is the answer to the question the rockets didnt ask…

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 5:42 pm
    nbk who cares how old Yi is, the man will be nasty soon enough.

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 5:51 pm
    unless he is as nasty as he is gonna get. If Beasley was 23 instead of 19 you think he would have gone number 2 in the draft? Thats my point.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 5:57 pm
    Yes, Beasley would have been #2, maybe even #1 because he would have been a more mature player. If Yi is 24 or 25 like you claim he is, then he still has a way to go before he gets into his prime (around 28-30)

  • Jose Posted: Dec.30 at 5:58 pm
    yea age plays a part in players

  • Jose Posted: Dec.30 at 5:58 pm
    obviously

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 5:59 pm
    so you honestly think a player who is older will get picked higher because he is “more mature” I am sure brandon Roy and his #7 selection would have something to say about that. Potential means more then maturity kid

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:03 pm
    hahaha yeah, cause pure potential picks turn out great! Kwame Brown, Harold Minor and Micheal Olawakandi can really be the poster children of that idea.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:04 pm
    and watch who u call kid, because you are most likely my age or 1-2 years behind me, but feel necessary to ‘type all grown up like and such to add to your superior persona’ or something.

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:06 pm
    doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Right or wrong about pure potential picks being worth it, they are still more valuable to nba teams then “mature” players. Kenyon Martin and Tim Duncan are the last two to be selected 1st overall that were older then 22 on draft day. You know what those guys have that Beasley didn’t- height.

  • B. Long Posted: Dec.30 at 6:07 pm
    BET stop being a bully! lol

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:11 pm
    if i was your age i would not be working all day. I would be playin ball tryin to make a college team not tryin to be funny on the internet. I wish i was your age though

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:11 pm
    kid

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:12 pm
    Kenyon Martin is between 6′9 or 6′10 depending if he has heals on or not. But look at Micheal Redd. He stayed all 4 years at OSU and he lights suckers up nighly when he is not injured. And comparing Beasley to K-Mart or Duncan is just retarded because all 3 of them are different types of players. Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time, K-Mart was once part of the greatest alley-oop combo of all time (Jkidd was the other part), and Beasley will be lucky if his name gets to be part of the ‘greatest anything’. But he will be a good NBA player, after 1 year of college, Beasley was a pure potential pick. Had Beasley stayed 2-3 years he could have been a mature player with better decision making skills/a higher basketball iq, and would have been the #1 pick. But this is not a alternate history. All i am saying is basketball players are like wine, they get better over time but if it gets too old its just sh!tty

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:13 pm
    I find it cute that you call me kid. Sweety

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:15 pm
    uhm wine gets better with age no matter what for one. and no beasley left college because his draft stock could not get higher. And michael redd was picked in the second round that has no significance to the conversation i never said older players suck i said they have less potential. Which is true. And comparing Beasley to duncan and kmart is perfectly logical they all three were the best PF in the country the year before they got drafted.

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:16 pm
    i coat myself in sugar so that i live my name, weird that you guessed it. kid

  • pablasso Posted: Dec.30 at 6:21 pm
    Potential or maturity.. mmm that totally depends on which team is drafting don’t you think? ;-)

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:23 pm
    Honey Baby- he left school too early. If his draft stock couldnt get higher, why wasnt he #1? And my point is, older players are better rookies. Your point is GM’s draft on potential and older players have less of that. So basically we arent even arguing about the same thing. I said Tim Duncan, Kenyon Martin, and Micheal Beasley all have different playings styles, you say they can be compared because they were all #1 PF’s in the nation at the time they left. You pride yourself on calling me a ‘kid’ to supposedly delegate me to a lower status than you, i call you ’sweety/honey baby’ because its the internets and i just wanna have fun. Stop hating and start reading sweety, its not that serious.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:27 pm
    goodbye sunshine

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:28 pm
    i am not being serious if i wanted to “lower your status” or whatever i would not say kid at all. I would downplay every single thing you say to make it look like it is coming from the perspective of a child. But i understand exactly what your saying, you just like disagreeing with everything I say, this did not start with me, this conversation started with you saying Yi’s age does not matter. Quit trying to play the blame game, I know what we are talking about being the one who brought the topic up. Stop getting defensive rugrat, i am calling you a kid because you brag about it so much, i have no problem with you, and think most the things you say are actually funny.

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:30 pm
    He was not number 1 because Derrick Rose ws a better choice, if Beasley came out this year he would be behind blake griffen. next year who knows who, he was guaranteed to go in the top 3 when thats where your guaranteed to go your stock can’t get any higher. Plus beasley really does not have that much “potential” he is not a great athlete (jumping and running wise) compared to other people in the draft, he dominated college players all year, had the best freshman season ever, hence his draft stock can’t get any higher.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:52 pm
    I am back. Yi’s age does not matter. If i wanted to play a game with you, it would be Russian Rolette not the Blame Game. Also, i write for my enjoyment, not yours, my enjoyment is stating my opinon, which contrasts with yours. I am not the only person on here that disagrees with you, their have been comment sections tooken over by commentors yelling at you for saying dumb sh!t. Rose was the better choice? That means that Beasley did not get as high of a draft stock as he could have, or else he would have been #1. The Bulls passed on him because Rose was the more polished player, and he was that way because he had a higher basketball iq than Beasley. Some players are just like that. Lebron was like Rose, he is a exception to the rule, Beasley is not. Had Beasley stayed his sophmore year, he would have become a better player, and a more mature one. That would have made him ready for the NBA. The fact you say he would have been behind Griffin is just silly. Blake has been called a ‘Beasley like player’ which means he is not the real deal. If i had a choice between 2 players that did the exact same thing, but one is a 2 year vet and the other is a freshman, i would choose the 2 year vet because i would know what i would be getting. It just proves my point that the more experience you get, the more ‘NBA ready’ you become. Dont belive me? Look at Carmelo or Micheal Redd or Micheal Jordan. None were #1 picks, but all are really really really good NBA players. I think we can all agree with that.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 6:58 pm
    and i ‘brag’ about it? I dont ‘brag’ about being my age. My collegue Moose is one who brags about his age. He enjoys letting me know he is the greatest 12 year old journalistic protigee their is, and all his piece/lots of his comments reflect his thoughts on that. I never use my age as a excuse. I sometimes get mad about my age that i didnt get to see early 90’s basketball. I am however, not ashamed of the fact that i am one of the few ‘rugrats’ as you call them who seen Jordan play. I am not gonna be embaressed that i am part of something Ryan Jones called ‘The Soulja Boy Generation’ even if that means i dont fully understand Wu-Tang or NWA. So dont blame me or call me a bragger about my age, cause i am far from that. I dont like to bring up i am not a tribal elder, i wish i was. But really, since you brought it up, i answered you about being a 16 year old on SLAM. For the record how old is NBK? The guy who calls me ‘kid’ is how old in human years?

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 6:58 pm
    if your team is picking number 1 which is what we are talking about then you probably don’t need maturity. Actually that pretty much pertains to every lottery team, if your team is in the lottery you generally want to be good in a few years and are looking at rebuilding or are in the process of doing it. The teams on the fringe of the playoffs make picks for maturity for example the pacers who ended up with Roy Hibbert and Brandon Rush on draft night compared to the Thunder who have picked Durant, Green, and Westbrook all “potential” players.

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 7:05 pm
    21, i am not an old man or anything like that, but i did get to see all the things you say you wish you saw. I call you kid because the first day i ever posted on here you were talking about being a kid, being in high school, and pickin up chicks on the street lol. I don’t judge you by your age i respect your opinion the same as i would if you were 30. I had no idea moose was 12, does not matter to me. When you talk about being in HS almost every day you post on here thats like bragging although it does not really fit the definition so sorry for the word choice. It is frequently brought up that you are very young, and calling you kid does not mean anything to me except that you are a kid.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 7:07 pm
    Durant was far from a potential player. Everybody knew what he was gonna be right when he steped on the court, Durant is the franchise NOW and is a exception. If you could build a team around a dude you knew would get you numbers right when you picked him or somebody with ‘potential to make you a contender in 3 years’ you would pick instant numbers. Some guys are ready. I will give you that. BUT most dudes picked for potential WILL FAIL or never fully reach it. Tim Thomas, Darius Miles, Glenn Robinson, and others are all great exsamples of potential FAILS as are the previous players i named.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 7:10 pm
    if Nbk is 21, im the queen of england. But whatever you say, i claimed to be 21 on my first piece on this site before everybody realized that was total bs. I wanted respect and thought my real age would leave me without respect. I eventually told everyone and they were less than shoked. So as of right now you are 21 Nbk, if you want to tell everyone your real age and dump that security blanket ‘21′ age, good for you. If you dont, no one is gonna care.

  • B. Long Posted: Dec.30 at 7:23 pm
    This went on way too long.

  • Hursty Posted: Dec.30 at 7:28 pm
    moose isnt 12 Bet. You know that. anyways, continue with your faux fight…

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 7:44 pm
    well you get the point, he was always bragging about his age in comment sections, he is still my boy though.

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 7:46 pm
    I am 21 u want to see my facebook so you can know what I look like too? Or would you like me to tell you my address so you can meet me in person?

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 7:49 pm
    not really.

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 7:51 pm
    My age doesn’t matter I don’t need to prove anything

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 7:52 pm
    I was being sarcastic bet

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 7:53 pm
    But I am 21 3-4-87 ima 80s baby

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 7:54 pm
    Sarcasm and Smartassism are 2 different things that differ vastly

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 7:54 pm
    Thats word play, nbk

  • Nbk Posted: Dec.30 at 8:04 pm
    I’m aware but like I said I was being sarcastic, I don’t need u to explain the difference smartass

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 8:08 pm
    Nbk being sarcastic then calling me a smartass? Sounds like a smartasstic person at work. (smartasstic is a copyrighted BETCATS word used by the cat only)

  • Gumdrop Posted: Dec.30 at 8:48 pm
    You both suck.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.30 at 8:52 pm
    hey Gumdrop: YOU BOTH SUCK

  • s.e.a.n Posted: Dec.30 at 9:04 pm
    …So Dikembe Mutombo is back in uniform, how interesting.

  • Dacre Posted: Dec.30 at 9:29 pm
    I’m 28.

  • chintao Posted: Dec.30 at 9:33 pm
    It’s pretty funny that this thing between BET and Nbk is happening on a post about maturity.

  • Jetstar7 Posted: Dec.30 at 10:20 pm
    I’m 33. But since I’m Chinese, I think I’ll need to add 3-4 years to my real age. Or am I 29? Hmm…

  • Gumdrop Posted: Dec.30 at 10:20 pm
    Well played BET, well played.

  • Roy Posted: Dec.30 at 10:28 pm
    BETCATS is on a roll!!! :D

  • Anton Posted: Dec.30 at 11:12 pm
    epic

  • Darksaber Posted: Dec.31 at 12:11 am
    The battles on slamonline HAVE been more amusing to follow, but somehow Bet, you are in a lot of em. Used to be the jukester, but he’s kinda MIA in that sense lately. Hey, Deke is BAAAAACK. Cue the finger wagging music.

  • steve Posted: Dec.31 at 12:36 am
    why don’t the knicks try and brink back allen houston, pat ewing and john starks speaking of comebacks? afterall they’re still paying them lmao but seriously if the rockets wanted somebody old big stiff and virtually inoffensive they should’ve gotten kevin willis

  • Krishan Posted: Dec.31 at 7:18 am
    In this post, NBK once again argues some sh!t.

  • BETCATS Posted: Dec.31 at 7:49 am
    i dont think of them as ‘battles’ or ‘arguments’ i think of it as 2 contrasting views meet, then debate, then the side that isnt me runs away. Thats what it is.

  • LAN Posted: Dec.31 at 9:08 am
    omg betcats… you are friiiigen retarded….. it is true older players are more mature but is yi more mature? no but they thought that would develop as he is still young but obviously as he is older it cant develop as much.. jebbbbzzzzzzzz same goes with his nba talent… zomg he would have probably been a late 1st round to middle 2nd round pick if Milwaukee new he was 4 years older….

  • LAN Posted: Dec.31 at 9:09 am
    but anyway yay for mutombo… my favourite player of all time and the most important player from atleast the last decade if not all time….

  • Z Posted: Dec.31 at 9:17 am
    BETCATS, regardless of your age, you say a lot of dumb stuff. Beasley was a pure potential pick? He put up 26 and 12 on 53-38-77% in college. I don’t know him or anything but my guess is that he has no intention of getting a college degree so why stay when you’re a top 3 pick and you dominated the ncaa. If a dominant guy wants to get his degree before moving to the L à la Grant Hill or TD, then by all means. But for most, the NCAA is just a minor league, it’s no different than the D League.

  • Tarzan Cooper Posted: Dec.31 at 1:14 pm
    this made my year, now 2009 can come happily

  • MalevolentKing7242 Posted: Dec.31 at 1:25 pm
    Great 2009 starts with the mountain blocking shots!!! Fear the finger waggle!!!!!

  • Darksaber Posted: Jan.1 at 2:31 am
    Dikembe faretgagaeg afköldoaiehfeo ajkfjadlfa kdjfaiufjoei Jean-Jaques Wamutombo is back in the game. All is good in life (apologies to Deke for not remembering how to spell his 3-4 other names)

  • LAN Posted: Jan.1 at 7:22 am
    i thought it was dikembe mutombo mplondo mukamba jean jaques wamutombo……. wiki says something like that

  • rikson Posted: Jan.2 at 7:22 am
    @BETCATS: Just for the record: The main reason for chi to draft rose was that he is a local kid… its still a buisness!!! … Oh - and high draft stock cant never guarantee you the #1 pick -> #1 - #3 is as high as it can get. YOUR MAJESTY…

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