Manute Bol Passes Away At 47

[Big Bid'Ness]

From:Realgm.com

Manute Bol, the 7-foot-7 Sudanese giant who was a shot-blocking sensation with the Washington Bullets, Golden State Warriors and other teams in the National Basketball Association, has died at 47.

He died at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville of complications from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a rare skin condition contracted after a reaction to a medication he had taken in Africa. He had kidney failure, internal bleeding and other medical problems.

R.I.P. Manute Bol

 

[sheed]

Damn, thats sad. RIP Manute

 

[Mooche]

Dang. :/ R.I.P Manute Bol.

 

[dh1333]

RIP Manuuute

 

[playmaker7]

Wow

R.I.P.

 

[footballplaya52]

dude looked mad unhealthy

RIP

 

[elcheato]

Truly a great person. Did everything he could to help those in need. He spent money on houses for others, hospitals, etc.. instead of jewrely, cars and his own personal gain.

RIP

 

[Pugz]

wow, he was one of the greatest and nicest people to ever walk this earth. like dan said he spent all his hard earned money on others and was always helping. one of my favorite players too. im sad


r.i.p

 

[Pugz]

Packed small college gym on a cold winter night in ’85, and a friend’s father had driven us to campus to see Manute Bol for ourselves. No one had ever seen such a sight on the basketball court, arms and legs that went on forever, rising and rising until they reached a narrow face with such uncertain eyes. Plopped across the world, here was Bol, a 7-foot-7 center out of the Sudan, out of your wildest imagination.

Near the end of the night, Bol had obliterated a muscular, undersized Division II center who had spent the night throwing elbows into his kidneys and chest. As Bol watched the final minute, we walked slowly behind the University of Bridgeport’s bench and some kid stopped a few feet from him and said loudly enough for Bol to hear: “Is he real? Can I touch him?”

At 7-foot-7, Manute Bol towered over the NBA for 10 seasons from 1985-94.

I’ll never forget Bol glancing back toward him, his sad, soft eyes delivering an answer to a question that no one ever needed to ask. Basketball has never had a truer humanitarian, a most gregarious and generous gentleman. His life was an inspiration, heroic and ultimately tragic. Bol died on Saturday at age 47 in a Virginia hospital, and the wire report says he lost out to kidney disease and a painful skin condition.

“A beautiful man, someone you would never stop laughing with,” Jeff Ruland said by phone Saturday afternoon. Ruland had been a veteran when Bol arrived as a rookie with the Washington Bullets in ’85, and they had stayed in close contact through the years. “He always talked about how he had killed a lion with a spear in the Sudan, but I was always pretty sure he had done it with one of his free throws,” Ruland said.

Bol had planned to spend his life selling cows in the Sudan until one day he picked up a basketball, lurched to try to dunk and knocked out his front teeth. An improbable chain of circumstance and good fortune led him from the Sudan to the United States, from Cleveland State to the University of Bridgeport, from the Rhode Island Gulls of the United States Basketball League to a most improbable 10 seasons in the NBA.

Between funding Sudanese freedom fighters, children’s charities and a vice of casino gambling, Bol lost the several million dollars that he earned in the pros.

“He gave a lot of money away and he lost a lot gambling, too,” Ruland said. “If that guy didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any at all. Once, his ex-wife won a million dollars on the slot machines.”

After Sept. 11, 2001, Bol struggled to raise money for his Sudanese charities and let people make a mockery of a proud man. In exchange for donations, Bol wobbled on skates for a minor league hockey team and traded punches in televised celebrity boxing events. “My God, they’ve turned him into a circus act,” John Nash, the old Washington Bullets general manager, once told me.

To Bol, the only shame would be an unwillingness to use whatever means available to raise money and send it home. No, nothing was ever easy for him, except that laugh and a sweet, sweet disposition.

Still, it just seemed he could never catch a break. Six years ago, Bol made the mistake of climbing into the taxi cab of an unlicensed and drunk driver. The car crashed, Bol was thrown from the back seat and eventually lay for months in a hospital bed with a broken neck. Ruland and old friends would go visit him, and Manute Bol could still light up the room. Everything about Manute Bol – from those spindly arms and legs unfolding 7 feet, 7 inches, to his incredible story – was bigger than life.

“One of a kind,” Ruland said Saturday afternoon. “Never another like him.”

 

[MR.ballin]

R.I.P

 

[bestkeptsecret13]

Dang. :/ R.I.P Manute Bol.

Damn, look at those legs. Spud barely makes it past them.

RIP Manute Bol, one of the greatest shot blockers of all-time.

For his 18 MPG career average, he averaged over 3 BPG. Pretty impressive...

 

[cruzg24]

Damn RIP. He will trully be missed.

 

[MapleLeaf]

He lived in Kansas City, so sad. Great person. He will be remembered

 

[The Young One]

He lived in Kansas City, so sad. Great person. He will be remembered

X2

I remember about 3 years ago when I had a paper route...the star wrote a great article on him.

RIP

 

[RipCity32]

Only the good die young... RIP Maunte.

 

[Mexi]

Too bad I never got to see him play. little before my time

still an NBA player no one forgot. everyone knew Manute

and for what he did off the court. great guy

Rest in Peace Manute. I was saddened when I heard this news

 

[$tunna]

R.I.P Manute

 

[The Guid]

RIP Manute