Phoenix Suns star Bismack Biyombo on Friday announced he intends to use his salary from this NBA season to build a hospital in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to honor his late father.
According to CNN, Biyombo, 29, hadn’t played in the NBA since the end of the 2020-21 season. The Congolese native, who became a free agent after leaving the Charlotte Hornets, is said to have taken that break to care for his father and later grieve his passing. He eventually signed a seasonal contract with the Phoenix Suns in January. And per the Spotrac, the 29-year-old is expected to earn $1.3 million at the end of the season.
“I think once my Dad passed, the love of the game kind of fell a little bit because he was my everything — my friend, my business partner, my mentor and everything,” Biyombo said in a video that was shared on the Bismack Biyombo Foundation’s YouTube Page.
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“I wanted to make this year about my Dad because my Dad spent most of his life making his life about me, my brothers, my sisters and servicing people.”
Last month, Biyombo told Andscape that his father Francis contracted Covid in July last year. And though he recovered, the basketball star said his father suffered other health complications as a result of contracting the infectious disease. Francis, 61, passed away in Turkey on August 2021. Prior to his death, Biyombo spent 45 days with him in their native country as well as Turkey.
Biyombo explained the hospital will honor his father’s legacy as well as provide needed healthcare in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“I told my agent my salary for this year would be going to the construction of a hospital back home to give hope to the hopeless at home and those individuals that cannot take their family members out,” Biyombo said.
“I want to be able to give them better conditions so that they can somewhat have hope that their loved ones will be able to live and see another day. I wanted to give them something that would continue to service people under his name.”
During the start of the pandemic in 2020, Biyombo told Time Magazine that his foundation donated almost $1 million in medical equipment to locations in the DRC. And though the basketball star has also renovated hospitals in the central African country and also supported medical staff, he emphasized that he wants to do more to help, CNN reported.
“We’re just trying to make sure we can save as many lives as we can,” he said.
“I’ve seen how people try to survive daily in the Congo. I thought we were doing enough by refurbishing hospitals and clinics but I think it’s time we go a little bigger by building something that will service people, hopefully for generations.”
