BYU men’s basketball adds former NBA champion Mutombo to coaching staff

PROVO — BYU men’s basketball coach Kevin Young added a former NBA champion to his coaching roster Monday afternoon.

No, really; he did.

The Cougars announced the hiring of longtime NBA assistant Patrick Mutombo on Monday, two months after former assistant Will Voigt left for a similar position at Boise State.

Mutombo arrives in Provo after spending the past two years as an assistant coach with USA Basketball, where he helped the Americans go 3-1 in a pair of World Cup qualifying windows and helped Stephen Sillas’ squad to a bronze-medal finish at the 2025 FIBA men’s AmeriCup with a 4-2 record.

“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Patrick and his family to Provo,” Young said of Mutombo, who was an assistant coach during the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 NBA title run. “Patrick is one of the best humans I’ve met in the game of basketball. Cougar Nation will love him and his family. He has tremendous experience in the NBA and with USA Basketball that will be of great benefit to all of our players and staff. We couldn’t be more excited  to add the Mutombo family to BYU basketball.”

Mutombo also worked as an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2024-25, after a year in the Milwaukee Bucks organization and a season with Young on the Phoenix Suns’ staff in 2022-23. He spent two years as head coach of Raptors 905, Toronto’s NBA G League affiliate that finished with the best record in the division in back-to-back seasons and also coached in the G League with the Austin Spurs from 2015-16.

Welcome Home Coach 🤙 pic.twitter.com/eJznn22avd

— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) August 31, 2026

The former 6-foot-5 forward from Kinshasa, Zaire played collegiately at Metro State from 1999-2003, where he was a two-time NCAA Division II national champion under Mike Dunlap. Mutombo appeared in 20 games as a true freshman en route to a national title in 2000 before earning Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference player of the year honors in 2002 as a junior when he averaged 16.6 points and 4.4 rebounds on 53.6% shooting per game.

Mutombo was inducted into the Roadrunners’ athletic hall of fame in 2011.

Mutombo played professionally overseas from 2003, 09, including five seasons in Italy with Pallacanestro Messina, Roseto, Air Avellino, Pallalcesto Udine and Ferrara before wrapping up his pro career with the Bakersfield Jam in the former NBA Development League.

But the best random fact about him, as cited on his Wikipedia page, is that the 46-year-old Mutombo holds no known relation to the late eight-time NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo — “although he is frequently asked if he does.”

BYU opens the 2026-27 season with a pair of exhibition games beginning Friday, Oct. 16 against Nebraska at the Marriott Center. The nonconference schedule also includes road games with Ohio State, Northwestern and San Diego State, as well as a trip to the Maui Invitational opening against Washington on Nov. 23.