With the Olympics less than a week away, Africa’s resident humanitarian and Houston Rocket Dikembe Mutomobo made a visit to his teammate Yao Ming to speak with him about the his responsibility China’s most recognizable athlete.  Because of the Olympics, a lot of people now ask me about Taipei, human rights, Tibet.” said Yao, referring to the hot button topics surrounding the Olympics. “I want to keep the Olympics separate from politics.”

And who else to get advice from than Dikembe Mutombo, the Congolese center that has involved himself in funding and building a $29-million dollar hospital, actively participating in Basketball without Borders, and meeting with Nelson Mandela. “(Yao) watches some movies and plays some of his video games. That’s going to change.” says Mutombo.

“I’ve learned so much from Dikembe already.” responded Yao. “He always has a notebook, never stops talking to people on the phone. He has three or four. But I didn’t really understand until I had to do it with the earthquake. That’s when you understand, it’s not something you just do, you have to put your heart into it.”

Here are a couple more snippets from their conversation:

Yao: I’m not going to talk about (Taipei, human rights, Tibet) now because I want to keep the Olympics separate from politics. That’s not what the Olympics are for. They were started to bring people from different countries and different ways of thinking together to compete in sports.

Mutombo: To refuse to participate because of something political? C’mon. China was not the country that voted itself to have the Olympics. The Olympic Committee of more than 145 countries made that decision. Why didn’t those countries tell their sports ministries not to vote for China?

Yao: I can tell you that most Chinese people still think the way I once did. When I lived in China and someone would describe us in a bad way or say we were doing something wrong, I would think they were against us. Do that, and you will push us away from what you want us to do.

Mutombo: Be patient, Yao, because your heart will tell you to make everybody happy and you can’t. It came to a point when I was building the hospital that I almost quit because I faced so many challenges with the government. You will get some support from people in the government but there will be other people that will feel you are taking their job by coming to the spotlight.

Yao: 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.

Links and Resources: Yao Enters Mutombo’s World (ESPN), Mutombo set to open Hospital in Congo (NBA),  Basketball without Borders (NBA), Ewing, Mutombo and Yao at Yao’s Restaurant… (Interbasket Forum)