Preseason basketball, postseason baseball, midseason football, doesn’t matter. Out Of Bounds in 4.

Today’s Lineup

Mutombo’s Monumental Legacy

We discussed the passing of NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo in Wednesday’s newsletter, but we want to celebrate the Hall of Fame center’s humanitarian efforts further.

We’ve seen through recent MVPs and competitive Olympic Games that basketball is an increasingly global game, and this is in part because of Mutombo. The Congolese big man spread the game in Africa and around the world, helping lead Basketball Without Borders, a worldwide community outreach program between FIBA and the NBA, and became the NBA’s first official Global Ambassador.

More crucially, Mutombo worked tirelessly to improve living conditions in his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including the $29 million Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, named after Dikembe’s late mother. Check out the beautiful work Dikembe and his hospital have done ⬇️

Constructed in 2007, it was the first hospital built in the DRC in 45 years! Now, the hospital can host patients not just from the city center but also more rural areas of the DRC as well as neighboring countries like Angola and Cameroon. It helps the hundreds of thousands of children who die every year in the DRC due to largely preventable diseases like malaria, pneumonia, and malnutrition. 

Simply put, Mutombo was the best of human beings. We invite you to read this tribute from Dikembe’s son, Ryan, about what made his dad so special ❤️

KAT and Julius Randle

Two All-NBA talents swapped teams this week in a trade that dramatically alters contenders in both conferences, but we want to honor the two individuals who meant so much to their respective cities. 

Karl-Anthony Towns was traded away from Minnesota just months after he received the NBA Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award for his pivotal role in passing Minnesota’s Restore the Vote bill, allowing over 55,000 formerly incarcerated individuals the right to vote.

Julius Randle, meanwhile, was building a freakin’ school on the day the Knicks shipped him out. Randle has contributed more than $1.3 million in helping construct the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School, a nonprofit, tuition free school aiming to serve students interested in pursuing career paths associated with basketball, like as broadcast media, facilities management, law, nutrition, sports psychology and more. The school’s new basketball gym will be called “The Julius Randle All-Star Court.” 🐐

Talk about giving back to the local community. Both Randle and KAT, philanthropic heroes in their cities, leave behind a legacy bigger than basketball. And that is why we play 💪 

When we went to a New York Knicks game last year, we shelled out the GDP of a small country in exchange for some food and drinks. Across professional sports, it seems like concession prices in arenas are ballooning, but the Utah Jazz are taking a different approach ⬇️

Yeah, we get that cost of living near Times Square is vastly different than living in Mountain Time. If the Jazz were title contenders, maybe these prices would be higher. But shoutout to the whole Jazz organization for putting fans before financials 💪 

Signing Off

We’ll leave you here to Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, but we’ll be right back in your inbox tomorrow with our regularly scheduled programming of hoops and happy vibes. 😁✌️

-Conor Geelan