Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo Interview on ESPN
Another writer who is fed up with reading crap stories by major media outlets who continually ignore the humanitarian efforts of celebrities and athletes tipped me off to this piece…The article was penned by Ric Bucher on www.sports.espn.go.com. Clearly, Yao Ming and Dikembe are schooling the rest of the boys on what it is to be “real men.” Real men have big hearts, souls, smiles and pa-lenty of love for those who need it most. They inspire us and make us forget about those who make it rain, steal from friends, assault women, drag race and create unnecessary controversy that contributes nothing to this world except grief.

In part, Bucher wrote: Mutombo is as well known for his humanitarian efforts throughout Africa—capped by the completion of a $29 million, 300-bed hospital in Kinshasa last fall—as he is for his NBA exploits, which include four Defensive Player of the Year awards. Yao has followed his lead and has been a one-man Red Cross in China, where he organized last summer’s charity game in Beijing between NBA and Chinese stars and has started a relief foundation for victims of Western China’s earthquake last spring. Still, Yao could always use some advice. So Mutombo flew down, and The Mag tagged along…

My favorite paragraph from the entire piece comes from Yao Ming, who says:
“ What inspires me are the stories that have come out. There is a picture on a website of a teacher who, when the earthquake was happening, put four kids under a table and put his body on top of the table. When the school wall came down, the teacher died but the kids were saved. You can’t stay away when you hear stories like that. When my foundation raises the money to rebuild those schools, we’re going to name the schools after those teachers.”

Once again, if that doesn’t give you goose bumps or a lump in your throat, I would venture to guess you have no soul?

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As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo
delinda@athlebrities.com