Manute Bol...taken from us too soon

[sox83cubs84]

The 7'7" 10-year NBA center died at age 47 from a combination of kidney failure and a skin condition.

A humanitarian focusing on Sudan in recent years, Bol's decade in The Association found hime wearing the uniforms of Washington, Golden State, Philadelphia and Miami.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[both-teams-played-hard]

Rest in peace. Worth a listen:
http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=4102555&song=Ballad+Of+Manute+Bol

[both-teams-played-hard]

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9097/manutebol.jpg

[BradleyERyon]

My favorite Manute Bol pic, with Muggsy. It's sad to see him dead at just 47.

[LEGEND33]

R.I.P. Manute

[CampWest]

I met Manute a few times. His humantarian organization, Sudan Sunrise, was of all places located in the city I just moved from last year - Lenexa, Kansas and he lived in my hometown of Olathe, Kansas. Both suburbs of Kansas City. Anyhow, I met Manute a few times around town, tough to miss him ya know. Anyhow, really nice guy doing big things to create positive change. Its too bad that his life ended when it did - he would no doubt have continued making a huge difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people.

[mbenga28]

will always remember Manute 1:08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz-xlnSuaVM

[whatupyos]

He was fun to watch play when he was on the Warriors. He loved to hoist up 3 pointers and he never needed to jump!! He was a great humanitarian. Need more people like him on this planet. RIP Mr. Bol!!

God rest your soul.

[CampWest]

Manute Bol deserves more recognition for his work in Sudan

By SAM MELLINGER

The Kansas City Star


$(document).ready(function() { replaceRelated(1079);});The hero is 7 feet 7 inches when he’s standing but for now lies on his back, crammed into a standard hospital bed in Virginia. His name is Manute Bol. You might remember him as the tallest player in NBA history during his 10 seasons.
The story of why he is hooked to tubes in Virginia instead of relaxing at his home in Olathe is inspiring and embarrassing and humbling and depressing, all at the same time.
He knows this story is running today, and wanted to talk, to spread his message. But the pain is too much. Maybe later.
So for now, he lays in that bed and takes more tests and grinds through more pain and wonders when he can get back to doing more good. This is the inspiring and humbling part of his story.
“He’s making progress,” says a friend, Tom Prichard, standing outside Bol’s room. “But he’s got a long way to go.”
Bol is fighting acute kidney failure and a potentially fatal skin disease contracted while trying to help his native Sudan. The skin disease is so bad he couldn’t eat for 11 days. The man who risks his life for others takes on this fight mostly on his own. One of the teams he played for is sending flowers. The NBA playoffs march on.
Bol spent his entire basketball fortune and survived attacks on his life to save and improve lives in and around Sudan. He lost hundreds of family members in an ongoing war but saved or educated at least that many with peacemaking efforts that one author compared to Muhammad Ali.
Ali is a legend, of course, while Bol is at best a cult hero and at worse a freak show. Maybe if Bol was a better player we’d pay more attention. Maybe if he was doing his good deeds closer to our home, instead of his, we’d help him more.
Instead, Bol symbolizes an unfortunate side of our sports obsession and how we measure the worth of those who play. The best athletes get the love, most times regardless of what they do away from sport.
Bol, doing the work of a saint, is largely ignored.
And that is the embarrassing and depressing part of his story.
•••
From the very beginning, Bol’s career had a freak-show quality to it. How could it not? The Guinness Book of World Records recognized him as one of the tallest people in human history.
He could easily touch the rim without jumping, and his inseam measures I-5. To give you an idea, an average American man is roughly eye level with Bol’s bellybutton.
This was always the thing with him. He remains the only player in NBA history to average more blocks than points. In Seattle, room 2064 at the Holiday Inn kept an 8-foot bed for when he played the Sonics. Woody Allen joked that Bol was so skinny his teams saved money on travel by just faxing him from city to city.
Bol had precious little experience playing organized ball, but taught himself a three-pointer to keep opponents honest. There is a bit of Bol’s personality in his preference to stay outside. He’s always been gentle and kind, sometimes to his own detriment. It’s been like that off the court, too.
When the NBA no longer wanted him, he rode coach and stayed in Travelodges for a season in the CBA. Saying the travel “is killing me,” he quit basketball and allowed himself to be a bit of a circus show. Anything to generate money and attention for the tragedies in Sudan.
He made appearances as the world’s tallest jockey (even though he’d never ridden a horse) and hockey player (even though he couldn’t skate). He even boxed Refrigerator Perry on TV, all of it to help his people back home.
“There’s no way I can put the money in my pocket while my people are getting beat up,” he once said. “Whatever I can do to help my people I will do. I feel whatever I make here I make for my people.”
•••
The Heat once fined Bol $25,000. He missed two exhibition games, so the fine wasn’t out of line, except this: he was in Washington D.C. for Congress-sponsored peace talks between rebel leaders from Sudan.
The team donated the money to Bol’s charity, but he was still annoyed, hinting out loud that trying to bring peace to a war-torn country might be a decent excuse for missing a couple preseason games.
You could do worse than that for an anecdote of Bol’s place in this world. According to reports, he made nearly $6 million in his career, and, aside from a few American comforts, spent it all trying to save lives and educate children back home. He has given so much and received little in comparison.
He was once lured back to his home country with the promise of a cabinet post, only to find out he would be required to convert to Islam. When he refused, he was stranded for nearly five years. His trust and good intentions have been abused so many times.
Even while playing, he went into war zones to help the Lost Boys and other refugees. Sometimes, those visits were interrupted by bombings from warlords who viewed Bol as a threat.
His family was wiped out by Darfurians, but when that country became victims, Bol was one of the first Sudanese to speak out in support. A Christian, he told his people that extremists were the enemy, not Muslims.
•••
Bol lives a modest lifestyle now, his expenses paid either with speaking fees or money left over from a few fundraisers put on by former teammates, including Chris Mullin.
He needed every penny of it six years ago, when he nearly died from a car accident. He needs it now, too, to fight diseases contracted while trying to help others. He was in Sudan to help build a school, and extended his stay after the government asked him to make appearances to fight election corruption.
It’s one more time he risked his life to help his people. This one almost killed him. If he comes out of this healthy, a mountain of medical expenses await along with an $18,000 bill to finish three classrooms for 150 children in Sudan.
There are any number of theories why he hasn’t been able to finish those classrooms with the equivalent of NBA tip money. Some say the league’s “NBA Cares” program is hesitant to do much in such a dangerous part of the world. Maybe not enough people know about Bol’s efforts. Maybe Bol just doesn’t have the right connections.
“There’s guys who give away turkeys in the ‘hood and get more props than this guy building schools in the Sudan,” says Steve Perry, author of “Man Up!” and an expert on social issues. “I’ve had more shine on TV than he has, and what this guy is doing is way more important.”
•••
The uncomfortable part of this is that we’ll appreciate Bol, 47, more when he’s gone, whenever that comes. He is expected to come out of the hospital in Virginia fine enough, but it’s hard not to notice that he’s already lived longer than most of the others on Guinness’ list of the world’s tallest people.
This is how it often goes, of course. A man’s life is only fully inventoried after it’s over. Nobody gets a eulogy until their funeral. This is the concern of Perry and other friends.
Bol can’t save his country on his own, certainly not without the greater stature or fortune that would’ve come with a more successful basketball career. He needs help, lots of it, and the irony is that it may take his death to get that help.
Maybe then, old friends with more resources and fame will continue a cause more important than anything they did on the basketball court.

To reach Sam Mellinger, call 816-234-4365, send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com (smellinger@kcstar.com)


Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/29/1980177_manute-bol-deserves-more-recognition.html?storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0rW0fx FeB

[kudu]

Bol knows hockey....

33980

Bol knows horse racing....

33981

Bol knows boxing....

33982

RIP Mr. Bol

[tcfor3]

The Bol jersey that is pictured on this thread. Is it a presentation jersey? Maybe from when he was signed by the Bullets.

I worked for the Bullets for four seasons in the mid to late 1980s and have had over 200 Bullets uniforms and warm up sets in my collection at various times. I have never seen a game jersey from the 1983-84 to 1985-86 seasons, when they wore this particular style, that had the name screened directly onto the jersey. The team always used nameplates on game jerseys.

I also have more than 3,000 game action images, slides and negatives as well as some game and season highlight videos of the Bullets from this era and can't find one of Bol or any other player wearing a jersey that has their name directly screened onto the back of the jersey.

This is a Wilson jersey which means it was used by the Bullets prior to the 1986-87 season when the NBA started using Sand-Knit uniforms. It has the extra tag for the extra length that the jersey is made with.

It was definitely manufactured to be a game jersey, but with the name not being on a nameplate, that is something the team didn't do as a rule.

The warm up set appears to be game worn. If the bottoms are Sand-Knit, there should be sewn into the back of the waistband the measurements for Bol's inseam as well as his jersey number. This measurement varied on his warm-up bottoms from 48" to 50-1/2" for the sets made by Sand-Knit.

[tcfor3]

After further analysis of the Manute Bol jersey pictured on this thread and pictures of that I have of Manute from his career with the Bullets, this jersey was not game worn by Manute Bol.

The style of striping on the front was worn by the Bullets from 1973-74 to 1982-83. Bol began his NBA career in 1985-86.

This jersey could have been used by Bob Dandridge who wore #10 for the Bullets from 1977-78 to 1980-81.

The Bullets wore jerseys made by Wilson from 1976-77 to 1985-86. Prior to that they wore Rawlings uniforms going back into the 1960's when they were in Baltimore.

Washington's home uniforms from 1983-84 to 1986-87 had four additional blue thin stripes that ran parallel to the thicker red and white stripes on the front of the jerseys that are not present on this jersey. These thin blue stripes were located as one above and one below each of the thick red stripes with about one inch of the white stripe showing between the blue and red stripes.

I will try to post pictures later of what the striping on the front of Bullets 1983-84 to 1986-87 jerseys looks like for your reference.

FYI: It was fairly common for Bullets to pull old game jerseys from storage and renumber and reletter them for presentations which is what it appears happened with this jersey.

[LEGEND33]

Thanks for the info.
Alberto

[LEGEND33]

WARMUPS TAG (i have also a red one version)

[otismalibu]

Washington's home uniforms from 1983-84 to 1986-87 had four additional blue thin stripes that ran parallel to the thicker red and white stripes on the front of the jerseys that are not present on this jersey. These thin blue stripes were located as one above and one below each of the thick red stripes with about one inch of the white stripe showing between the blue and red stripes.

You can see in the photo that Alberto posted - no thin stripes. There are also a number of Getty photos against the Mavs that show Bol wearing a home jersey with no thin stripes.

But, Getty #102316243 is supposedly from the same game against the Mavs, and it looks as though the Bullets jersey have a seam across the back. I don't see a nameplate.

[tcfor3]

In response to the photos posted with Manute wearing a jersey without the thin blue lines that the Bullets wore in Manute’s first two seasons (1985-86 and 1986-87).

The images of Manute from the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks games are from preseason games. My collection of photos are from regular season and playoff games only so this is the first time I have seen images that show the Bullets wearing older style jerseys during a future season's preseason.

While these do show Bol wearing a jersey without the thin blue stripes, there are still marked differences between the jersey pictured on this thread and the one that Bol is wearing in the Getty images.

The numbers and letters on the jersey that Bol wears in the images against the Knicks and Mavericks do not match up in placement on the front of the jersey with the jersey pictured on this thread. The name on the back of the jersey is also placed on the jersey with much more of an arch and also doesn’t match up in placement in relation to the numbers on the jersey as with the name on the nameplate shown on Getty image #102316243. The numbers on the back of the jersey pictured on this thread are also sewn much closer together than on the Getty image jersey.

The line you describe on Getty image #102316243 is the bottom of the nameplate on the back of his jersey. You can see the same type of “line” on the jersey of the player (Jeff Malone) to Bol’s right.

During the mid 1980’s, the Bullets had precut nameplates made for their home and road jerseys that they would have a player’s name screened onto and then sewn onto a jersey as needed. I have several of these blank nameplates as well as a few others that have had player’s names screened on that were removed from jerseys when the player left the team. They are cut the same size.

So while there is evidence that the Bullets wore older style jerseys in Manute’s first preseason, the jersey in the Getty photos does not match the particular jersey pictured on this thread.

[otismalibu]

The images of Manute from the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks games are from preseason games. My collection of photos are from regular season and playoff games only so this is the first time I have seen images that show the Bullets wearing older style jerseys during a future season's preseason.

So, what we've learned here, is that your collection is not complete :) Pre-season game jerseys still count as game worn, although not as desirable as regular season or post season.


While these do show Bol wearing a jersey without the thin blue stripes, there are still marked differences between the jersey pictured on this thread and the one that Bol is wearing in the Getty images.

No one is saying that Alberto's jersey is a match to the photo. It was posted to show that Bol did indeed wear the jersey w/o the stripes you mentioned.

Those are some interesting nameplates on the Bullets jerseys. Why wouldn't they just cut plates to fit the name? Much less sewing involved in adding the plate and much less seam ripping when removing. Lot of extra work to basically hide the end seams.

[tcfor3]

First of all, I never said my collection was complete.

In addition, I am always willing to learn more about what teams have done in regards to there uniforms. While I have acquired a great deal of knowledge about several teams uniform histories, I am always ready to add to that knowledge.

While there is evidence that the Bol wore a Bullets jersey that did not have the additional blue stripes during the preseason of his rookie year, the jersey pictured on this thread is not that jersey.

It would be highly unlikely for the Bullets to make more than one home or road jersey for any player for the preseason unless there is evidence that that particular player's jersey was lost or stolen during that preseason. They wouldn't have gone to that expense unless absolutely necessary.

Second, my original question still stands, This jersey doesn't have the name on a nameplate, so why or for what reason was it made?

If anyone can shed some light onto that, please do.

[otismalibu]

While there is evidence that the Bol wore a Bullets jersey that did not have the additional blue stripes during the preseason of his rookie year, the jersey pictured on this thread is not that jersey.

Yeah, I think we've established that. It's not a photomatch thread...it's a RIP tribute thread. The only reason the photo was posted was in response to your claim that he didn't wear Bullets jerseys w/o the stripe.


They wouldn't have gone to that expense unless absolutely necessary.

They were spending all their money on nameplate material and thread.


This jersey doesn't have the name on a nameplate, so why or for what reason was it made?

Retail? I've picked up a few Wilson 76ers jerseys that were exactly the same as their late 70s/early 80s gamers. Supposedly, these were sold to the public. Just bought one on eBay a couple days back. No name on back.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390212648268

Did they do this with Bullets jerseys? Could fans buy nameless jerseys just like what the players wore? If so, maybe a Dandridge retail jersey was improperly customized after the fact. Or maybe it's a Dandridge gamer? I could find any photos of Dandridge where the front numbers matched up.

[tcfor3]

This isn't a retail jersey because there is an additional white cloth tag attached to the Wilson tag on the front that should have the additional length that this jersey has when it was made written on it. That tag wouldn't have been added to retail jerseys by Wilson.

This could be a Dandridge game jersey that someone had Bol screened directly onto the back.

This could have been done by the Bullets' front office to have pictures taken at a press conference of Bol holding the jersey when he was signed. A search for images from when Bol was signed by the Bullets may show that this was done.

I have looked through the Bullets media guide from 1985-86 and newsletters from that era, but none show a photo from Bol's press conference when he signed.

[otismalibu]

Ah yes, the added length tag. Didn't notice it. That would rule out retail.

Unless one can find a photo or someone with inside knowledge.

I've seen a 76ers Maravich jersey auctioned off that was supposedly made for a future press conference, when it looked like he would sign with Philly. He ended up signing with the Celtics.

Would be interesting to see if one could find a Dandridge jersey that matched up. No idea what size he wore. Did Alberto state what size this one is? I found a completed auction for a road Bol Bullets and I think it was a size 38 jersey. Looked a shade longer too.

[LEGEND33]

Thanks again for all the info....i tried to photomatch the jersey but....
Size 46 LONG
One thing that can help to photomatch is the "basketball logo" over the double L of word bullets: it is sewn, in the lower part, over the white stripe...
YES the picture was posted as a tribute to Manute.

[otismalibu]

Back in the early/mid 80s, size 46 would be considered a pretty good sized jersey, unless these Bullets jerseys ran small.

Here's the Bol auction I found. Manute was a stick.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6606821

Size 46 would probably even be too big for Dandridge, IMO. I think Moses was wearing a size 46 Wilson in the early 80s.