<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/20/sports/20MANU.html">Times have been better for Manute, sad to say</a> (On edit: As Band Geek Mobster notes below, the NY Times site requires registration -- free registration, but still . . . Anyway, you can read the article two posts down, thanks to tacoma park legend.) ------------------ [This message has been edited by Swopa (edited June 20, 2001).]
Care to copy the article out in this thread so I won't have to register to see it? ------------------ I wanna riot...
I didn't have trouble seeing it, but here's the article HARTOUM, Sudan, June 19 — Young men from the south of Sudan are shooting hoops in a rundown court on a sweltering evening in downtown Khartoum. They pound a cheap ball on the cracked tiles as a few hundred boys and girls watch the game, shouting, chatting and flirting. Hundreds of miles to the south the government is dropping bombs on their homeland. But here, inside the walls of the Comboni basketball court, there is refuge in familiarity. After one boy hopelessly fluffs a layup, a man unfolds himself from his seated position and strides onto the court. He is impossibly tall even for a Dinka, the tallest of the southern tribes. The man calls for the ball, lifts his long arms to the sky and tips the ball gently into the net. His heels do not leave the ground. A swell of delight ripples through the crowd, and then explodes into cheers as the man lifts his skinny arms in a mock-superman gesture. Manute Bol can still work a crowd and draw cheers on a basketball court, but six years after his retirement from the National Basketball Association, Bol's life off the court has taken some dire turns. Many of his investments have gone bad. His knees and wrists often ache with rheumatism and he is living a jobless existence on the wrong side of Sudan's bitter, long-running civil war. His wife has left him and moved to New Jersey with their four children. Bol lives now in a rented house in a dusty suburb of Khartoum with two wives, one child and 14 relatives. Some days, his joints hurt so much that Bol, who is 39, can barely walk. Treatment is out of the question, because it is too expensive. Apart from beds there is no furniture in Bol's house; it was all sold last week to raise cash. Bol wants to return to the United States, to lay claim to an N.B.A. pension (for which he may not be eligible for at least six years) and perhaps to coach basketball. But the main reason is that he wants to see his children. "I haven't seen my kids in four years," he said. "I want to see them bad." "I'm a nobody now," he said one day recently as he sat in a taxi speeding across the Nile to go watch a basketball game, "but I'm still somebody for my people. They still love me." When Bol entered the N.B.A. in October 1985, he was the league's tallest player ever. A wiry 7-foot-7, he was adept at swatting the ball away on defense. He could make more mobile, athletic centers alter their shots to avoid him. In his rookie season, Bol blocked 397 shots, a league record that still stands. In 10 years in the N.B.A., he played for a half-dozen teams, including the Washington Bullets, the Golden State Warriors, the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers. By the time he retired in 1995, Gheorghe Muresan, another 7-foot-7 center, was also in the league. Offense was never Bol's forte, although during a stretch with Golden State, Coach Don Nelson encouraged Bol to take 3- point shots, for which he showed an unexpected flair. Bol's stature and his endearing personal tale — he grew up minding cattle in a remote corner of Sudan before transforming himself into a backup center in the world's most prestigious basketball league — brought him much attention during his American career. "Manute Bol is so skinny, to save money on road trips they just fax him from city to city," Woody Allen once joked. At the height of his career, Bol said he signed a $1.5 million contract with the 76ers, and his income was augmented by sponsorship deals with Nike, Kodak, Toyota and others. He spent money on luxury cars, fashionable clothing and houses in Maryland, Egypt and Khartoum. He invested $500,000 on a Washington club, the Manute Bol Spotlight; run by a friend, the club went bankrupt. But Bol said most of his money went to the southern Sudanese. Among the Dinka tribe, family extends to practically every identifiable relative. Bol, who comes from a powerful Dinka dynasty, had thousands of relatives, and many sought his help. Some of his money paid for cows for a dowry or for a funeral. He also spent millions on Sudan's 18- year-old civil war. The fight is between the national government, dominated by Muslims from the north who are ethnic Arabs, and rebels from the south who are African and have Christian and traditional tribal beliefs. The government in Khartoum started a violent drive against southern rebels led by the Dinkas. Thousands of civilians, including people from Bol's village, Turalei, fled their homes, ending up in refugee camps as far away as Ethiopia. Bol visited the camps and tried to drum up support in America. "People were in bad shape," he recalled. "You could only look at them one time and not again." Bol became an important financial backer of the rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army. He paid for their Washington office and for a $1,000-a-month lobbyist, among other things. Bol estimates that in all he spent more than $3.5 million on the rebels. Bol left the N.B.A. in 1995, and after playing briefly the following year with a team in Italy, he moved to Kampala, Uganda. He invested $150,000 in a business run by a cousin; it, too, went bankrupt. Then the Sudanese government offered a peace settlement. One rebel leader, Riak Machar from the Nuer tribe, agreed to the proposal, but the People's Liberation Army refused. Bol surprised many Sudanese by siding with Machar. In 1997, he suddenly left Kampala and flew to Khartoum. The leaders of the People's Liberation Army saw Bol's decision as treachery. Bol says he simply believed it was time to stop the civil war. "I don't like the war," he said. "I used to, but not anymore." The government saw Bol's decision to come to Khartoum as a propaganda coup. "When Manute first came it was all over the papers," said Jacob Kauat, a former basketball teammate in Sudan. "He was always guarded by four bodyguards and you would have to wait for hours to meet him. And I was one of his friends." Several people said Bol had been promised a senior position in the government, but it never materialized. Jobless and ignored, Bol started to feel the strain. He sold a house in Egypt and another in Khartoum. A home in the United States was repossessed after he defaulted on payments. Bol is vague when discussing his finances and how he is getting by without a job. He wants to return to the United States with his second wife, Ajok, but it is not clear whether the Sudanese government will let him leave. Bol is confident that he will be granted an exit visa. "I don't see how they can refuse me," he said. But some of his friends fear that his departure may be seen as an embarrassment to the government. For now, Bol is bearing the responsibilities of a Dinka chief. He organizes weddings and wakes, mediates disputes and offers advice to the young. Bol said he does not regret the lost money and fame. After visiting the United States, he said, he wants only to return to Turalei, his ancestral village, and look after his cattle. "I would have a big, big farm," he said. "Then we have no worries about money. If you have the cows, you have the money." First, though, the war must end, and so it may be a long time before the cow herder goes home. ------------------
67% from the field....that has to be a career high for Bol. Sad story nonetheless. I will always remember Barkely constantly pranking Bol. He was such a good sport about it too. ------------------ My doctor says I am bipolar. I am going to get a second opinion. I have never had intimate desires for polar bears.
I remember when Bol hit like 3 or 4 three pointers in a row for the Warriors...that was the lead story on Sportscenter a couple of nights in a row ------------------ Who's ya daddy?
Manute seems life he deserves better maybe some of his old teammates will help him out J williams Charles Barkley etc Rocket River ------------------
What's up with Gheorge Muresan? Is he still trying to make a comeback from bad feet? ------------------ "How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak. Because someday you will have been all of these."
I remember seeing a highlight on NBA Inside Stuff (when it was actually entertaining and informative and not a shilling machine) in the early '90s when he lit up Barkley and the Suns for 6 three pointers. I also remember him having something ridiculous like 10 or 12 blocked shots against the Orlando Magic. I believe he won a shot blocking title. But that is what happens when you don't save your money right and make bad investments. ------------------ "Win if you can, lose if you must but always cheat!" - Jesse Ventura
