NBA Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo is best known for what he did on the basketball court for 18 years in the league, but these days he's getting cheers for his humanitarian work.
This week, the 7-foot-2 gentle giant from the Republic of the Congo flew an eight-year-old boy by from his native country to Los Angeles to have doctors in Beverly Hills remove a large tumor from his face.
Mutombo met the boy in September while on a trip to Africa and immediately wanted to help him. He tells TMZ, "I was touched by what he's going through as a young boy who's eight years old. Not going to school. The way he's been pushed away by the society. His mom has to keep him in the bedroom every day because people are talking bad about him."
The boy will now have the operation which Mutombo is paying for. Once he recovers, he'll return home, and hopefully go back to school and live a better life.