The journey began with an unnamed college basketball coach from New Jersey, who, after being dismissed from his position, found an unexpected opportunity in Sudan in 1982. He travelled to Sudan (modern day South Sudan) in 1982 where he held coaching clinics for both the national basketball team and the Sudanese military team. One day he encountered the towering 7’7 Manute Bol who wanted to be a professional football player. He asked the man, who did not speak a word of English, to travel to Cleveland to play at a college level.
Manute was born into a big family from the Dinka tribe with no birth certificate. His mother and sister stood at 6’8, his dad at 6’10, and his grandfather a staggering 7’10. After being persuaded to go to Cleveland, both the NBA and the NCAA (college) instantly rejected Manute due to his poor ability to speak English. This infuriated him and he was forced to play in the college 2nd division for the Bridgeport Purple Nights. He dominated the league on defence averaging 7.1 blocks per game. For perspective, in last year’s competition, no entire team’s average blocks per game came within 0.3 of Manute’s impressive 7.1 blocks per game.”
Eventually, in 1985, after learning English for 1 year and reaching the required standard, he entered the NBA with the 31st overall pick. Even though he weighed only 90kg, his extraordinary height made him a formidable presence on defence and he was picked by the Washington Bullets. In his rookie season he averaged 5.0 blocks per game (leading the league) and in his first ever career start, he set a Washington franchise record with 12 blocks in one game. After a stint at various other teams, he finally retired due to a form of arthritis 12 years later.
His career was not the greatest but was one of the most interesting, for he made more blocks than points scored during his career, which had never happened before, and achieved the second highest blocks per game average (3.3). Yet another strange thing about the man was that no one knew his birth date and his coaches all believed that he was playing in the league as a 50-year-old! His legacy in the NBA is being carried on by one of his ten sons, Bol Bol, who is only a measly 7’2.
After his career on the court, Manute returned to Sudan to try to help a vast number of Sudanese refugees by creating education and language programs, determined to ensure that their lack of English proficiency did not limit their opportunities. He donated nearly all of his NBA salary to charities related to helping this. Moreover, he took part in many charity events to help raise money. These included appearing on a celebrity boxing show with former NFL player William Perry; signing a one-day contract with the Indianapolis Ice of the Central Hockey League; and a three-week march in New York with Sudanese swimming champion Simon Deng to raise money for finding a solution to the genocide in western Sudan and to raise awareness about modern slavery. Finally, he worked regularly with the Sudan Sunrise organisation to build schools across South Sudan which anyone could join and start learning English. Sadly, Bol died in 2010 due to kidney failure but his legacy remained, with many NBA teams recognising his impact on Sudan. As the US Senator Sam Brownback put it, “he gave his life for his people”.
