| weight_lbs = 200
| college = Bridgeport (1984–1985)
| draft_year = 1985
| draft_round = 2
| draft_pick = 31
| draft_team = Washington Bullets
| career_start = 1985
| career_end = 1997
| career_position = Center
| career_number = 10, 11, 4, 1
| years1 = 1985
| team1 = Rhode Island Gulls
| years2 = –
| team2 = Washington Bullets
| years3 = –
| team3 = Golden State Warriors
| years4 = –
| team4 = Philadelphia 76ers
| years5 =
| team5 = Miami Heat
| years6 =
| team6 = Washington Bullets
| years7 =
| team7 = Philadelphia 76ers
| years8 =
| team8 = Golden State Warriors
| years9 = 1995–1996
| team9 = Florida Beach Dogs
| years10 = 1996–1997
| team10 = Fulgor Libertas Forlì
| highlights = * NBA All-Defensive Second Team ()
- 2× NBA blocks leader (, )
| stats_league = NBA
| stat1label = Points
| stat1value = 1,599 (2.6 ppg)
| stat2label = Rebounds
| stat2value = 2,647 (4.2 rpg)
| stat3label = Blocks
| stat3value = 2,086 (3.3 bpg)
Manute Bol ( ; June 19, 2010) was a Dinka Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist. Listed at
Bol was notable for his efforts to promote human rights in his native Sudan and aid for Sudanese refugees.
Early life
Manute Bol was born to Madut and Okwok Bol in Turalei, a small village in what was at the time Sudan, now part of South Sudan. His father was a tribal elder for the Dinka people. Bol's exact birth year is unknown; the birth date listed in his United States immigration forms is October 16, 1962, although Cleveland State basketball head coach Kevin Mackey claims he chose this date to appease immigration officials. Mackey said, "I wanted to make sure he was young enough because he didn't have an age. I think he was [in his 40s], I really do. But there's no way of ever really knowing." Former teammate Jayson Williams believes Bol may have been as old as 55 before he retired in 1995, potentially placing his year of birth as early as 1940. An often repeated story about Bol's life in Sudan was that he killed a lion with a spear, although former teammate Charles Barkley has questioned the validity of the story. Bol did not want to partake in the ritual and instead wanted an education, and on two separate instances ran away from home. His mother was , his father was , his sister was , and his great-grandfather was . Bol recalled, "I was born in a village where you cannot measure yourself". In 1979, a photographer for a newspaper in Khartoum took a photo of Bol. The image was widely circulated, and the police chief in Wau invited him to play for the police basketball team. His coach instructed him to focus on blocking and rebounding, and whenever he was not on the court, he was to watch how the taller players would position themselves underneath the basket for layups and dunks. Bol's height made him near impossible to guard, and it helped the Catholic team become one of the best teams in the league. A requirement to play for the national team was to enlist in the military, and Bol was listed as a paratrooper, but never saw any service time.
Move to the United States
Coach Don Feeley, formerly the basketball coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, traveled to Sudan to coach and held clinics for the Sudanese national team in 1982. Feeley convinced Bol to go to the United States and play basketball.
With Feeley's input, Bol first landed in Cleveland. According to Cleveland State University basketball coach Kevin Mackey, Bol could not provide a record of his birth date.
Again with Feeley's influence, Bol declared his intention to play professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The San Diego Clippers drafted him in the 1983 NBA draft as the 97th overall pick. Clippers head coach Jim Lynam received a call about Bol from Feeley, whom he knew from coaching circles. "So, I said, 'Have you told anyone else about this?'" Lynam recalled. "Feeley said the only one in the NBA he had called was Frank Layden at Utah. He said Frank said he couldn't take another big guy like this. He already had Mark Eaton. I was the second guy Feeley had called. I told him he didn't have to call anyone else."
After the June 1983 draft, Lynam traveled to Cleveland and watched Bol play pickup games. In speaking with Bol, through a fellow Sudanese player, Lynam learned that he had become hesitant about playing professionally because he did not know the language well enough to understand coaches. Lynam said, "One of the things everyone was looking at was his passport. His passport said he was 19 years old. His passport also said he was five feet two." When Lynam asked Bol about the discrepancy between his real height and his passport height, Bol said he had been sitting down when measured by Sudan officials.
College basketball career
thumb|Bol (left) playing for [[Bridgeport Purple Knights in 1984]]
With the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) questioning his eligibility for NCAA Division I basketball, Bol enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, an NCAA Division II school with an English program for foreign students. He played for the Purple Knights in the 1984–85 season. His coach was Bruce Webster, a friend of Feeley. Bol averaged 22.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 7.1 blocks per game for the Purple Knights. The team, which previously drew 500–600 spectators, routinely sold out the 1,800-seat gym. Going into the 1985 NBA draft, scouts believed that Bol needed another year or two of college; however, Bol opted for the draft because he felt it was the only way to earn enough money to get his sister out of Sudan, which was in a state of political unrest at the time. and had gained just under by the time he entered the NBA. The Bullets sent Bol to strength training with University of Maryland coach Frank Costello, where he could initially lift only on 10-repetition bench press and on 10-repetition squat (his body mass index was 15.3 and he initially had a 31" (80 cm) waist).
Bol's first tenure with the Bullets lasted three seasons, from 1985 to 1988. In his rookie season (1985–1986), he appeared in 80 games and recorded a career-high 5.0 blocks per game. That year, during his first career start on December 12, Bol set a Washington franchise record with 12 blocks and scored a career high 18 points in a 110–108 overtime victory against the Milwaukee Bucks. His total of 397 blocks set the NBA rookie record and remains the second-highest single-season total in league history, behind Mark Eaton's 456 in 1984–85. Bol led the league with 5.0 blocks per game during the 1985–86 season.
In 1987, the Bullets drafted the point guard Muggsy Bogues, pairing the tallest and shortest players in the league on the court for one season.
Bol competed in the NBA playoffs with the Bullets in 1986, 1987, and 1988.
Bol led the league with 4.3 blocks per game for the 1988–89 season. Fans were known to yell "shoot" as soon as Bol received the ball far from the basket.
Later career (1993–1997)
After being released by Philadelphia in July 1993, Bol played in eight games in the 1993–94 season with the Miami Heat. He scored only one two-point field goal with the team and blocked six shots in 61 total minutes. Seven nights later in Charlotte, in a game nationally televised by TNT, he was in the starting lineup again. By this time, two weeks into the season, his career seemed rejuvenated under Warrior head coach Don Nelson; he was again a defensive force, making threes and contributing as a starter to create matchup problems. After playing only ten minutes against the Hornets on November 22, 1994, he suffered a season-ending knee injury. Before he left the game, he recorded one block and two points and attempted a three-pointer in ten minutes of play.
Bol played professionally in Italy in 1997 and in Qatar in 1998 before rheumatism forced him to retire permanently. Official NBA publications have listed Bol at either Complementing his great height, Bol had exceptionally long limbs (inseam ) and large hands and feet (size 16 ). His arm span, at , is () the longest in NBA history, and his upward reach was .
With his great height and very long limbs, Bol was one of the NBA's most imposing defensive presences. Along with setting the rookie shot-blocking record in 1985–86, Bol later tied the NBA record for most blocked shots in one half (11) and in one quarter (eight, twice). On , in a game against the Orlando Magic, he blocked four consecutive shots in a single possession. On average, he blocked one shot per every 5.6 minutes of playing time.
Bol's other basketball skills, however, were very limited. His rail-thin physique made it difficult for him to establish position against the league's bulkier centers and power forwards, and he also suffered from a claw hand on his right hand (his natural hand), which severely affected his shooting and ball-handling abilities. To compensate for this inherited deformity on his right hand, Bol learned to dribble, block shots and rebound with his (non-dominant) left hand.
Off the court, Bol established a reputation as a practical joker; Charles Barkley, a frequent victim of his pranks, has attested to Bol's sense of humor.
In his NBA career, Bol averaged 2.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.3 assists, and 3.3 blocks per game, playing an average of 18.7 minutes. He finished his career with 1,599 points, 2,647 rebounds, and 2,086 blocks. He appeared in 624 games over 10 seasons.
Humanitarian efforts and activism
Bol was active in charitable causes during and after his basketball career. He claimed he spent much of the money he made during his NBA career supporting various causes relating to Sudan and its civil war.
Bol frequently visited Sudanese refugee camps, where he was greeted enthusiastically by its inhabitants. In 2001 the Sudanese government offered him the post of minister of sport. Bol, a Christian, refused because one of the conditions was converting to Islam.
Later, the Sudanese government hindered Bol from leaving the country, accusing him of supporting the Dinka-led Christian rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It refused to grant him an exit visa unless he came back with more money. Assistance from supporters in the United States, including Senator Joe Lieberman, raised money to provide Bol with plane tickets to Cairo, Egypt. After six months of negotiations with U.S. consulate officials regarding refugee status, Bol and his family were finally able to leave Egypt and return to the United States.
In late 2002, Bol signed a one-day contract with the Indianapolis Ice of the Central Hockey League. Though he could not skate, the publicity generated by his single-game appearance helped raise money to assist children in Sudan.
Bol was involved in the April 2006 Sudan Freedom Walk, a three-week march from the United Nations building in New York City to the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. The event was organized by Simon Deng, a former Sudanese swimming champion who was a longtime friend of Bol's. Deng, who was enslaved from age 9 to 12, is from another tribe in Southern Sudan. His Sudan Freedom Walk focused on finding a solution to the genocide in Darfur (western Sudan) but also sought to raise awareness of the modern-day slavery and human-rights abuses throughout Sudan. Bol spoke in New York City at the start of the walk, and in Philadelphia at a rally organized by former hunger striker Nathan Kleinman.
Bol was also an advocate for reconciliation efforts, and worked to improve education in South Sudan. A Nicholas Kristof article in The New York Times highlighted Bol's work for reconciliation and education with an organization called Sudan Sunrise. Bol first began working with Sudan Sunrise to raise awareness on issues of reconciliation in 2005. This included speaking at the United States Capitol and subsequently partnering with Sudan Sunrise to build schools across South Sudan that, in the spirit of reconciliation, would enroll students regardless of tribe or religion.
Personal life
Bol had six children with his first wife, Atong, and four with his second wife, Ajok. Bol's son Madut (born December 19, 1989) played college basketball at Southern University and graduated in 2013. Another son, Bol Bol (born November 16, 1999), is an NBA basketball player. Bol was Catholic.
Bol spoke Dinka and Arabic before learning English.
In July 1988, Bol was arrested for driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest. On August 28, 1988, Bol was arrested in Maryland for driving while intoxicated.
Despite initially knowing little English or Western culture upon arriving in the United States, Bol adjusted and was widely regarded as well-rounded, inquisitive, and well-read. He developed a strong friendship with Charles Barkley, who remarked, "If everyone in the world was a Manute Bol, it's a world I'd want to live in. He's smart. He reads The New York Times. He knows what's going on in a lot of subjects. He's not one of these just-basketball guys".
During his time in Egypt, Bol ran a basketball school in Cairo. One of his pupils was a fellow Sudanese refugee, future NBA player Luol Deng, the son of a former Sudanese cabinet minister. Deng later moved to the United States to further his basketball career, maintaining a close relationship with Bol.
On February 11, 2004, Bol was arrested in West Hartford, Connecticut for assault, disorderly conduct, and interfering with a police officer. Police alleged that Bol had struck his daughter and injured her lip. According to the Hartford Courant, Bol was intoxicated and also attempted to harm himself. He received medical treatment for his injuries following the incident. The driver, who died following the accident, was driving with a suspended license and was intoxicated. Because his fortunes were mostly donated to Sudan and he had no health insurance, Bol was financially ruined by the accident. He is buried in South Sudan.
Funeral service and tributes
thumb|Bol's memorial service at the [[Washington National Cathedral]]
Bol's memorial service was held on June 29, 2010, at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. His body lay in an eight-foot-long, specially-built casket. At the funeral, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback said, "I can't think of a person that I know of in the world [who] used [his] celebrity status for a greater good than what Manute Bol did. He did it for his people. He gave his life for his people." NBA Development Vice President Rory Sparrow added, "'He had a heart that was very large and full of compassion for his fellow man'".
After his death, tributes to Bol's career and charitable works came from around the United States and the world. His former teams, and the NBA, issued statements in recognition of his impact on the sport of basketball and on Sudan. Brownback paid tribute to Bol on the floor of the United States Senate.
Honors
- Bol was inducted into the University of Bridgeport Athletics Hall of Fame, Class of 2010.
- On January 27, 2015, the Golden State Warriors honored Bol with a Manute Bol bobblehead giveaway. The team sponsored a giveaway of 10,000 of the tallest bobbleheads in franchise history, at .
- The "Manute Bol Court" was built and constructed in South Sudan by the Luol Deng Foundation in 2015.
- The Manute Bol Peace Builders Basketball Tournament is held annually throughout Sudan.
- In 2016, Bol was inducted into the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame.
Career statistics
NBA
Regular season
|-
|
| align="left" | Washington
| 80 || 60 || 26.1 ||.460 ||.000 ||.488 || 6.0 || 0.3 || 0.4 || style="background:#cfecec;"| 5.0* || 3.7
|-
| align="left" | 1986–87
| align="left" | Washington
| 82 || 12 || 18.9 ||.446 ||.000 ||.672 || 4.4 || 0.1 || 0.2 || 3.7 || 3.1
|-
| align="left" | 1987–88
| align="left" | Washington
| 77 || 4 || 14.8 ||.455 ||.000 ||.531 || 3.6 || 0.2 || 0.1 || 2.7 || 2.3
|-
| align="left" | 1988–89
| align="left" | Golden State
| 80 || 4 || 22.1 ||.369 || .220 ||.606 || 5.8 || 0.3 || 0.1 || style="background:#cfecec;"| 4.3* || 3.9
|-
| align="left" | 1989–90
| align="left" | Golden State
| 75 || 20 || 17.5 ||.331 ||.188 || .510 || 3.7 || 0.5 ||0.2 || 3.2 || 1.9
|-
| align="left" | 1990–91
| align="left" | Philadelphia
|82 ||6 ||18.6 ||.396 ||.071 || .585 ||4.3 ||0.2 ||0.2 ||3.0 || 1.9
|-
| align="left" | 1991–92
| align="left" | Philadelphia
|71 ||2 ||17.8 ||.383 ||.000 || .462 || 3.1 ||0.3 ||0.2 ||2.9 ||1.5
|-
| align="left" | 1992–93
| align="left" | Philadelphia
| 58 ||23 ||14.7 ||.409 ||.313 ||.632 || 3.3 ||0.3 ||0.2 ||2.1 ||2.2
|-
| align="left" | 1993–94
| align="left" | Miami
|8 ||0 ||7.6 ||.083 || .000 || – || 1.4 ||0.0 ||0.0 ||0.8 ||0.3
|-
| align="left" | 1993–94
| align="left" | Philadelphia
| 4 || 0 ||12.3 ||.429 || – || – ||1.5 ||0.0 ||0.5 ||2.3 ||1.5
|-
| align="left" | 1993–94
| align="left" | Washington
| 2 || 0 || 3.0 || .000 || – || – ||0.5 ||0.0 ||0.5 ||0.5 ||0.0
|-
| align="left" | 1994–95
| align="left" | Golden State
|5 ||2 ||16.2 || .600 || .600 || – ||2.4 ||0.0 ||0.0 ||1.8 ||3.0
|- class=sortbottom
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 624 || 133 ||18.7 ||.407 ||.210 ||.561 ||4.2 ||0.3 ||0.2 || 3.3 ||2.6
|-
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1986
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 5 || 5 || 30.4 || .588 || – || .375 || 7.6 || 0.2 ||0.6 ||5.8|| 4.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1987
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 3 || 0 || 14.3 || .400 || .000 || .000 || 3.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 1.6 || 2.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1988
| style="text-align:left;"| Washington
| 5 || 0 || 8.8 ||.571 || – || 1.000 || 2.4 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.4 || 1.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1989
| style="text-align:left;"| Golden State
| 8 || 0 || 18.5 || .194 || .091 || .286 || 3.8 || 0.1 || 0.2 || 3.6 || 2.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1991
| style="text-align:left;"| Philadelphia
| 8 || 0 || 13.6 || .500 || – || .667 || 2.3 || 0.1 || 0.1 || 1.5 || 3.0
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 29 || 5 || 17.1 || .386 || .087 || .444 || 3.8 || 0.1 || 0.2 || 2.7 || 2.8
College
Source
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;"
!Year
!Team
!GP
!FG%
!FT%
!RPG
!APG
!SPG
!BPG
!PPG
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1984–85
| style="text-align:left;"| Bridgeport
| 31 || .611 || .595 || 13.5 || 1.4 || .3 || 7.1 || 22.5
See also
- List of NBA annual blocks leaders
- List of NBA single-game blocks leaders
- List of NBA single-season blocks per game leaders
- List of tallest players in NBA history
- List of tallest people
Notes
References
External links
- Player Profile (InterBasket)