Stern — who understood the importance of promoting the NBA to the world by playing exhibition games in Europe, getting games on television in China and spreading Basketball Without Borders programs all over the world — made Mutombo the NBA’s first global ambassador in 2009. “I believed Stern back then because he had the capacity and the knowledge to make things happen,” Mutombo said of the former commissioner, who died in 2020. “He was a very smart man who wanted to rule the continent. I’m so happy that our commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum [are] following [in Stern’s] footsteps very well. They are committed to the promise David made to see the continent shine.”