Top 10 NBA players all-time who lack a major fan base
By Troy Hanning
10. Dikembe Mutombo
Remembered as being one of the best interior defenders of his time and rightly so. Dikembe Mutombo’s best and most memorable years came with the Atlanta Hawks. One reason being that Michael Jordan posterized him and used his own signature shaking of the finger against him.
The other being that he was a defensive force on a winning team, putting up 3.2 blocks and a team-high 12.6 rebounds in the short five seasons he played in a Hawks jersey. Then Mutombo became Allen Iverson’s sidekick in Philadelphia where they went to the NBA finals in Iverson’s infamous 2000-01 season. After that, most people’s memories get cloudy.
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Few remember that he was an even greater defender in Denver, where he put up the best numbers of his career while playing 82 games for three consecutive years. Few remember that in just five seasons for Denver, three of them are in the top 12 for most blocks in one season.
And very few remember his NBA finals appearance in 2003 as a member of the New Jersey Nets. But most don’t. After playing for seven NBA teams, no fan base calls him theirs. And therefore, only a few regard him as being one of the greatest defenders of all time.