When our local TV sports anchor announced Saturday night that former NBA star Manute Bol had died, she missed the most important part of the story. At seven foot seven, Bol was more than one of the tallest players in the NBA; he could very well have been the most philanthropic.
What many people don’t know is that Bol gave away pretty much his entire NBA fortune to help his native Sudan.
“He was a wonderful person. He would always talk about the civil war going on in Sudan, because he was sending all his money back to Sudan,” Charles Barkley, Bol’s teammate on the 76ers and an NBA analyst for TNT, told CNN’s Don Lemon. “I can honestly say I never played with a better person,” Barkley said.
“He never forgot about the Sudan. He would talk to us about it all the time. … The world is not a better place today, it’s worse because we don’t have Manute Bol,” he added.
This video from a few years ago provides a decent overview of Bol’s life. Even after nearly being killed in a tragic car accident, he continued his charity work.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7RM5gFqnOc]
For many Bol’s name will always be synonymous with the sight of a towering, ungainly center who put up a decent defense, a spectacle of a player who eventually became an outside threat with his long three-pointers. Bol could have taken his basketball salary and lived a life of luxury. Instead, he chose to serve others. There is a lesson for all in the way he lived his life.
