It looks like Dikembe Mutombo will play one more year for the Rockets, which is great news in my opinion. Deke was a capable backup last season for Yao Ming, especially during all those games where Yao was hurt while helping keeping the Rockets afloat. But for some unexpected reason former coach Jeff Van Gundy decided not to play him much in the playoff series they lost against Utah.

Mutombo is mad about how things ended last year for the team, and wants one more chance to end his career on a better note.

One unfortunate thing for him is that he wishes he hadn’t let his contract get pushed to the end of the Rockets’ line. He blames himself, probably because he didn’t know if he was going to come back and play this season. Instead, he will sign for somewhere between the veteran’s minimum of $1.2 million and a max of $1.9 million based on the team’s salary cap situation.

The way I see it, considering the millions of dollars that Mutombo has donated to the hospital that he has built in the Congo, this is one of those cases where I don’t mind hearing about an athlete not being 100% thrilled about the money he’s making. Overall, though, he appears ready to come back with a vengeance, which is the most important thing.

For the Houston Chronicle’s coverage of the story, click here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 1:40 am and is filed under Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.