How Manute Bol Used His Sports Fame for a Greater Good

04 July 2010

Manute Bol speaks in March 2006 at a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the Sudan Freedom Walk, a march from New York to Washington

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Manute Bol played ten years in the National Basketball Association. But he will be remembered as much for his shot-blocking in the NBA as for his charity work in Sudan. He died June nineteenth from kidney failure and a rare and painful skin disorder.

He became sick while working in his homeland. He was forty-seven years old. A funeral took place last week at Washington's National Cathedral.

Manute Bol was born in southern Sudan. He stood two hundred thirty-one centimeters -- tall even for a Dinka, some of Africa's tallest people.

His father, a tribal chief, did not think basketball was "good work for a Dinka." But the teenager chose it over herding his family's cattle.

He did not have much luck, though, the first time he went up to dunk the ball. As he once told the Washington Post: "When I came down I hurt my teeth in the net."

In the NBA, Manute Bol averaged less than three points a game on offense. But on defense, he became one of the most feared shot-blockers in the league. Former player Rory Sparrow says he was not afraid of anyone -- not even Michael Jordan.

RORY SPARROW: "He just laughed and said, 'What Michael Jordan? Why should I be afraid of Michael Jordan? I kill lion. He come in, I block his shot.' And sure enough, he blocked his shot. Michael made a couple of dunks. But hey, Manute stood his ground."