Background and career
Manute Bol ( mə-NOOT BOHL; died June 19, 2010) was a South Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist. Listed at 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) or 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) tall, Bol was one of the two tallest players in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After he played college basketball for the Bridgeport Purple Knights, Bol was selected by the Washington Bullets in the 1985 NBA draft. Bol played for the Bullets and three other teams over the course of his NBA career, which lasted from 1985 to 1995. A center, Bol is considered among the best shot-blockers in the history of the sport and is the only NBA player to retire with more career blocked shots than points scored. As of March 2026, he ranked second in NBA history in blocked shots per game and 17th in total blocked shots. Bol was notable for his efforts to promote human rights in his native Sudan and aid for Sudanese refugees.
Manute Bol was born to Madut and Okwok Bol in Turalei, a small village in what was at the time Sudan, now part of South Sudan. His father was a tribal elder for the Dinka people. Before his birth, Okwok had twice given birth to stillborn twins, and upon a visit to the local mystic, was promised a healthy boy who was to be named Manute. In the Dinka language, Manute means "special blessing". Bol's exact birth year is unknown; the birth date listed in his United States immigration forms is October 16, 1962, but Cleveland State basketball head coach Kevin Mackey admitted that it was fabricated and that he chose this date to make him attractive to teams. Mackey said, "I wanted to make sure he was young enough because he didn't have an age. I think he was [in his 40s], I really do. But there's no way of ever really knowing." Former teammate Jayson Williams believes Bol may have been as old as 55 before he retired in 1995, potentially placing his year of birth as early as 1940. Bol grew up during a period of relative peace in Sudan, a country that had recently experienced a lengthy civil war. This allowed him to avoid military service and experience a normal life. At the time, the Dinka people did not encourage formal education, and Bol instead helped raise livestock. An often repeated story about Bol's life in Sudan was that he killed a lion with a spear, although former teammate Charles Barkley has questioned the validity of the story. As Bol grew older, he was expected to participate in a ritual in which young boys would have some of their teeth removed with a chisel and have incisions cut into their forehead, which would signal one's ascension to manhood. Bol did not want to partake in the ritual and instead wanted an education, and on two separate instances ran away from home. In the second instance, he lived in Babanusa for about a year but struggled in school since he barely understood Arabic. Once he returned to Turalei, he participated in the ritual. Bol came from a family of extraordinarily tall men and women. His mother was 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), his father was 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m), his sister was 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m), and his great-grandfather was 7 ft 10 in (2.39 m). The Dinka belong to a larger ethnic group known as the Nilotes, which are among the tallest populations in the world. Bol recalled, "I was born in a village where you cannot measure yourself". By his late teens, Bol was 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m). Unlike most people of extreme height, Bol did not suffer from a growth-related pathological disorder such as gigantism. In 1979, a photographer for a newspaper in Khartoum took a photo of Bol. The image was widely circulated, and the police chief in Wau invited him to play for the police basketball team. Bol initially declined as he did not understand the appeal of the game, but was eventually convinced by one of his cousins. When Bol tried to dunk for the first time, he knocked out two of his upper teeth on the rim, and resolved to practice more so as to avoid another injury. After a few games in Wau, Bol was recruited to play for a Catholic team in Khartoum. His coach instructed him to focus on blocking and rebounding, and whenever he was not on the court, he was to watch how the taller players would position themselves underneath the basket for layups and dunks. Bol's height made him near impossible to guard, and it helped the Catholic team become one of the best teams in the league. Bol also joined the Sudan men's national basketball team, and played games in various African and European countries. A requirement to play for the national team was to enlist in the military, and Bol was listed as a paratrooper, but never saw any service time. Around this period, Bol watched footage of National Basketball Association (NBA) games, and dreamed of playing in the United States. When the national team was scheduled to play a game in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Bol was not included on the roster, and concluded that the team was worried he would defect to the United States.
Coach Don Feeley, formerly the basketball coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, traveled to Sudan to coach and held clinics for the Sudanese national team in 1982. Feeley convinced Bol to go to the United States and play basketball. With Feeley's input, Bol first landed in Cleveland. According to Cleveland State University basketball coach Kevin Mackey, Bol could not provide a record of his birth date. Mackey listed it as October 16, 1962, on Cleveland State documents, making Bol 19 years old, but he believed Bol was actually much older, possibly as old as 35. Bol did not speak or write English at the time of his arrival in Cleveland. He improved his English skills after months of classes at ESL Language Centers at Case Western Reserve University, but not enough to qualify for enrollment at Cleveland State. Bol never played a game for Cleveland State. Five years later, Cleveland State was placed on two years' probation for providing improper financial assistance to Bol and two other African players. Again with Feeley's influence, Bol declared his intention to play professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The San Diego Clippers drafted him in the 1983 NBA draft as the 97th overall pick. Clippers head coach Jim Lynam received a call about Bol from Feeley, whom he knew from coaching circles. "So, I said, 'Have you told anyone else about this?'" Lynam recalled. "Feeley said the only one in the NBA he had called was Frank Layden at Utah. He said Frank said he couldn't take another big guy like this. He already had Mark Eaton. I was the second guy Feeley had called. I told him he didn't have to call anyone else." After the June 1983 draft, Lynam traveled to Cleveland and watched Bol play pickup games. In speaking with Bol, through a fellow Sudanese player, Lynam learned that he had become hesitant about playing professionally because he did not know the language well enough to understand coaches. Lynam said, "One of the things everyone was looking at was his passport. His passport said he was 19 years old. His passport also said he was five feet two." When Lynam asked Bol about the discrepancy between his real height and his passport height, Bol said he had been sitting down when measured by Sudan officials. Language and passport concerns were set aside when the NBA ruled that Bol had not been eligible for the draft as he had not declared 45 days before the draft as required and declared the pick invalid.
With the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) questioning his eligibility for NCAA Division I basketball, Bol enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, an NCAA Division II school with an English program for foreign students. He played for the Purple Knights in the 1984–85 season. His coach was Bruce Webster, a friend of Feeley. Bol averaged 22.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 7.1 blocks per game for the Purple Knights. The team, which previously drew 500–600 spectators, routinely sold out the 1,800-seat gym. With Bol, Bridgeport qualified for the 1985 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament.
Bol turned professional in May 1985, signing with the Rhode Island Gulls of the spring United States Basketball League. Going into the 1985 NBA draft, scouts believed that Bol needed another year or two of college; however, Bol opted for the draft because he felt it was the only way to earn enough money to get his sister out of Sudan, which was in a state of political unrest at the time.
The Washington Bullets drafted Bol in the second round with the 31st overall selection. When he arrived in the United States, Bol weighed 180 pounds (82 kg) and had gained just under 20 pounds (9.1 kg) by the time he entered the NBA. The Bullets sent Bol to strength training with University of Maryland coach Frank Costello, where he could initially lift only 44 pounds (20 kg) on 10-repetition bench press and 55 pounds (25 kg) on 10-repetition squat (his body mass index was 15.3 and he initially had a 31" (80 cm) waist). Bol's first tenure with the Bullets lasted three seasons, from 1985 to 1988. In his rookie season (1985–1986), he appeared in 80 games and recorded a career-high 5.0 blocks per game. That year, during his first career start on December 12, Bol set a Washington franchise record with 12 blocks and scored a career high 18 points in a 110–108 overtime victory against the Milwaukee Bucks. His total of 397 blocks set the NBA rookie record and remains the second-highest single-season total in league history, behind Mark Eaton's 456 in 1984–85. Bol led the league with 5.0 blocks per game during the 1985–86 season. Bol was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 1986. In 1987, the Bullets drafted the 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) point guard Muggsy Bogues, pairing the tallest and shortest players in the league on the court for one season. Bol competed in the NBA playoffs with the Bullets in 1986, 1987, and 1988.
