Manute Bol was a Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist.
52 Facts About Manute Bol
2.
Manute Bol played for the Bullets and three other teams over the course of his NBA career, which lasted from 1985 to 1995.
3.
Manute Bol was notable for his efforts to promote human rights in his native Sudan and aid for Sudanese refugees.
4.
Manute Bol was born to Madute and Okwok Bol in Turalei, Sudan, and raised near Gogrial.
5.
Manute Bol came from a family of extraordinarily tall men and women.
6.
Manute Bol started playing soccer in 1972 but abandoned the game because he was too tall.
7.
Feeley convinced Manute Bol to go to the United States and play basketball.
8.
Mackey listed it as October 16,1962, on Cleveland State documents, but believed Manute Bol was actually much older.
9.
Manute Bol did not speak or write English at the time of his arrival in Cleveland.
10.
Manute Bol improved his English skills after months of classes at ESL Language Centers at Case Western Reserve University, but not enough to qualify for enrollment at Cleveland State.
11.
Again with Feeley's influence, Manute Bol declared his intention to play professionally in the National Basketball Association.
12.
Manute Bol said Frank said he couldn't take another big guy like this.
13.
Language and passport concerns were set aside when the NBA ruled that Manute Bol had not been eligible for the draft as he had not declared 45 days before the draft as required and declared the pick invalid.
14.
Manute Bol's coach was Bruce Webster, a friend of Feeley.
15.
Manute Bol averaged 22.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 7.1 blocks per game for the Purple Knights.
16.
Manute Bol turned professional in May 1985, signing with the Rhode Island Gulls of the spring United States Basketball League.
17.
When he arrived in the United States, Manute Bol weighed 180 pounds and had gained just under 20 pounds by the time he entered the NBA.
18.
On June 8,1988, Manute Bol was traded by the Bullets to the Golden State Warriors for Dave Feitl and a 1989 second round draft pick.
19.
Manute Bol played a career-high 82 games in his first season as a 76er, but his production began to decline afterward.
20.
Fans were known to yell "shoot" as soon as Manute Bol received the ball far from the basket.
21.
Manute Bol scored only one two-point field goal with the team and blocked six shots in 61 total minutes.
22.
Manute Bol scored six points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked nine shots.
23.
Manute Bol made the season-opening roster and played his last five NBA games.
24.
Manute Bol attempted three three-pointers in the fourth quarter and made them all.
25.
Manute Bol was waived by Golden State on February 15,1995.
26.
Manute Bol finished his career with 1,599 points, 2,647 rebounds, and 2,086 blocks.
27.
In 1996, the Portland Mountain Cats of the United States Basketball League announced that Manute Bol would be playing with the team, but he never appeared in uniform.
28.
Manute Bol played professionally in Italy in 1997 and Qatar in 1998 before rheumatism forced him to retire permanently.
29.
Manute Bol developed a close friendship with Mullin and named one of his sons after him.
30.
Manute Bol was active in charitable causes during and after his basketball career.
31.
Manute Bol said he spent much of the money he made during his NBA career supporting various causes related to the war-ravaged nation of his birth, Sudan.
32.
Manute Bol frequently visited Sudanese refugee camps, where he was treated like royalty.
33.
Later, the Sudanese government hindered Manute Bol from leaving the country, accusing him of supporting the Dinka-led Christian rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army.
34.
Manute Bol was admitted to the United States as a religious refugee in 2002 and settled in West Hartford, Connecticut.
35.
Manute Bol established the Ring True Foundation to continue fund-raising for Sudanese refugees.
36.
Manute Bol gave most of his earnings to their cause.
37.
Manute Bol once suited up as a horse jockey for similar reasons.
38.
Manute 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.
39.
Manute 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.
40.
Manute Bol was an advocate for reconciliation efforts, and worked to improve education in South Sudan.
41.
Manute Bol first began working with Sudan Sunrise to raise awareness on issues of reconciliation in 2005.
42.
Manute Bol had six children with his first wife, Atong, and four with his second wife, Ajok.
43.
Manute Bol's son Madut was born on December 19,1989 and played college basketball at Southern University and graduated in 2013.
44.
Manute Bol Manute Bol was taken 44th overall in the 2019 NBA draft by the Miami Heat and was traded to the Denver Nuggets.
45.
Manute Bol knows what's going on in a lot of subjects.
46.
In July 2004, Manute Bol was seriously injured in a car accident in Colchester, Connecticut; he was ejected from a taxi that hit a guardrail and overturned, resulting in a broken neck.
47.
Manute Bol was given tributes by former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, Sudan's Ambassador to the United States Akec Khoc Acieu, and vice president of the National Basketball Players Association Rory Sparrow.
48.
Manute Bol probably contracted this ailment that took his life while in Sudan, and he didn't have to do that.
49.
Manute Bol could have stayed here and had an easy life.
50.
Manute Bol did everything to support anybody in need of shoes, blankets, health service, food, and people who were struggling.
51.
Manute Bol went to see them and to encourage them to continue their struggle for their rights, for their freedoms.
52.
At the peak of his career, Manute Bol was so widely recognizable in pop culture as to become the object of teasing in a 1993 episode of MTV's Beavis and Butthead entitled "True Crime'".