NBA

Manute Bol, Ex-NBAer And Renowned Humanitarian, Dies At 47

In what’s surely the worst news we’ve heard today, ex-NBA player Manute Bol, known in his playing days for his massive 7-foot-7 frame and after for devoting his life to helping the people of his native Sudan, is dead at the too-young age of 47.

The Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger does a better job here detailing Bol’s humanitarian efforts than we ever could. Suffice to say, most of the money he ever made during his playing career (and what he made after in stunts like minor league hockey and celebrity boxing) didn’t go into his own pocket. From Mellinger’s article:

“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.”

Bol was also called a “moral giant” earlier today by the New York Times’ Nick Kristof, himself quite the authority on exposing the plight of some of the world’s worst regions to the masses. Kristof noted that Bol’s passion was for building schools through the Sudan Sunrise charity, and indeed, the kidney failure and skin disease that presumably played a large role in his death stemmed from a recent visit to Sudan Bol made to help get a school built, then extended to speak out for fair elections in his home country.

Of course, he spoke out against the humanitarian crisis in Darfur as well, even when, as Mellinger points out, no one would have blamed him if he hadn’t, given his personal history:

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.

And four years ago, Will Leitch shared the story (among many others) of Bol returning to Sudan in 1996 after leaving the NBA. His reward for returning to the land he had a passion for helping, when he could have been living comfortably in the U.S.? A prison sentence.

That’s really the sad, overarching theme of the life of Manute Bol: a devotion to doing good for others, while receiving essentially nothing in return. And while Leitch said in his piece that, yes, of course there were times when Bol questioned whether it was all worth the effort, he kept pushing when he asked himself:

How can I stay in America and live a good life when my people are suffering? I can’t do that.”

Deadspin wrote about him again recently, when it first came out that he was ill, and said: “If there’s anyone who doesn’t deserve this it’s him.” Sounds about right.

Mellinger reported in his story that while too weak to do so, Bol wanted to talk to him for his story, wanted to spread the word about Sudan any way he could. Even while lying in a hospital bed due to an illness brought on by a visit to his home country, it seemed that all he could think about doing was helping it.

RIP.

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