NBA star Bismack Biyombo is pledging to donate his entire $1.3 million salary this year to create a hospital in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Biyombo, 29, said in a video released by his Bismack Biyombo Foundation that the project will honor his late father, François Biyombo, who died last August.
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The Phoenix Suns player, who is a Christian, told his agent he wanted to come to an agreement to play this year that would enable him to advance a positive cause, especially as he initially paused playing basketball and re-evaluated his life and career in the wake of his dad’s death.
“While I was trying to figure out how to find something that would motivate me this year, I remember one day, I pick up the phone and called my agent,” he said. “And said the only way I would do it this year was if we find a situation — one, that I fit in and two, that I would play for something.”
Biyombo reflected on his father’s health struggles before his death and his ability, due to his own resources, to take his dad into Europe to seek better treatment.
He also pondered the lack of medical care available in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and found himself wanting to instill hope and a lasting memory of his father.
“I wanted to make this year about my dad because my dad spent most of his life making his life about me, my brothers and sisters, and servicing people,” he said. “What I told my agent was my salary for this year would be going for the construction of a hospital back home to give hope to the hopeless.”
Watch Biyombo explain why he’s giving his salary to build the hospital:
He said he wants to give people from his home country “better conditions,” and hopes to “save as many lives as we can.” Biyombo plans to build the hospital in his father’s honor.
“This is the best way I [think] that this year will be meaningful to me. It’s not just the desire to go for a championship, but also the desire to save lives,” he said. “And at the end of this season, I really want to be able to look back and say, ‘I dedicated this season to my dad.’”
This kind of deed comes as poverty ravages the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As The World Bank noted, “In 2018, it was estimated that 73% of the Congolese population, equaling 60 million people, lived on less than $1.90 a day (the international poverty rate).”
Pray for Biyombo as he embarks on this critical journey.
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