The doctors and nurses at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital are saving lives every day and helping improve health care in the DRC which has been ravaged by more than a decade of war and disease.

When I travel around the globe, I try as hard as I can to represent the NBA and the game of basketball to the best of my abilities. I get to go around the world and not only share the game but also my philanthropic work. Building a hospital in the Congo is one of the proudest achievements of my life.

Me as a backup center? Hell no.

After spending more than 17 years playing for the NBA, in the summertime, I always came back to community service and different basketball clinics.

The NBA is becoming a global game.

I come from a large family, but I was not raised with a fortune. Something more was left me, and that was family values.

I created the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation back in 1997 for the purpose of going in and improving the living conditions of my people on the African continent, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo where I came from. Our first mission was to go and build a new hospital. Our next mission was to build a school.