Quote:
Conskeeted7
Senior Member
Posted 07-01-2004
Manute Bol, former NBA star, was seriously injured in a car accident.
The cab he was riding in hit a guradrail, ran into a rock ledge, then flipped over several times. The cab driver was killed in the accident. Bol was thrown from the vehicle and sustained head injuries. He is currently in serious condition in a Connecticut hospital.
|
update
Manute Bol, Broke and unable to walk...
San Francisco Chronicle
Fellow Warriors reach out to aid a gregarious giant down on his luck. Manute Bol, the NBA's tallest player in his heyday, is broke and unable to walk after a June car crash -- old teammates rally to help
Jorge L. Ortiz, Chronicle Staff Write
They made an unlikely pair -- the Brooklyn-born gym rat with a classic basketball pedigree alongside the former Sudanese tribesman who stood a foot taller.
Their friendship flourished through two seasons of playing together for the Golden State Warriors and, more to the point, hanging out and laughing after practice to the extent that Manute Bol named one of his sons after Chris Mullin.
Each went his own way when their NBA careers were over. Mullin, an All- Star player, would return to the game as an executive with the Warriors. Bol's path has been harrowing, taking him from ill-fated goodwill missions in Sudan to financial straits and the desperate world of celebrity boxing. Now he's in a hospital bed, recovering from a terrible car accident.
As Bol recovers from his brush with death, Mullin and the Warriors are extending a helping hand. They have organized a fantasy camp aimed at raising funds to help pay the mounting medical bills incurred by Bol, who has been in a Connecticut hospital for nearly three months after being severely injured in the crash June 30.
Bol suffered three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a head wound, a crushed wrist, a broken kneecap and internal injuries when the cab he was riding in veered off course, bounced off a guardrail and smashed against a rock ledge alongside a road in Colchester, Conn. The taxi driver was killed.
"The accident was very big,'' Bol, 41, said from his bed at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain. "People did not think I was going to live. But rehab is going very well, and I can sit by myself, and I can talk to people.''
The 7-foot-7 Bol, as tall as anybody in NBA history, still can't walk without assistance, and his left wrist -- which doctors grafted to his abdomen to promote circulation -- remains in a cast. His vertebrae have healed, but Bol said doctors told him he won't leave the hospital before next month.
When he does, Bol, who does not have medical insurance, will face a huge debt he says he can't afford to pay. He gave away large sums to Sudanese Christians persecuted by the country's Islamic fundamentalist government, and his NBA pension does not kick in until he turns 45.
So the Warriors are stepping in. Mullin, now a team vice president, and former teammates Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway will participate in a Nov. 19- 20 fantasy camp dubbed Run With TMC, a play on the trio's nickname -- Run-TMC -- during their heyday with the fast-paced club in the early 1990s.
Not only will the fantasy camp's proceeds defray some of Bol's medical expenses, but Mullin hopes the event will focus attention on Bol's travails and help get him started on the road back.
"He's a survivor,'' Mullin said of the gangly Bol, who came into the league at around 200 pounds. "You looked at him in 1986 and you thought, 'Are you kidding me?' Somehow he found a role. He used his height, blocked shots. He had an effect on the game and on people.''
Bol, who ranks second in NBA history in career blocked shots per game (3.34), played only two years at Golden State, 1988-90, before a brief appearance in his final season of 1994-95.
He left an indelible impression, though, both with his shot-blocking and, improbably, his 3-point shooting. Coach Don Nelson often had Bol station himself beyond the 3-point arc to draw opposing centers away from the basket, and Bol actually made 20 such attempts in the 1988-89 season.
"My heart is still with the Warriors,'' said Bol, whose unlikely story and gregarious personality won him the affection of the team's followers. "I had my best years there.''
The years since his 1995 retirement haven't been as kind. Bol moved to Khartoum in 2001 and reportedly was offered a job as Sudan's sports minister, only to have it withdrawn when he refused to convert to Islam.
He returned to the United States in 2002 and has since partaken in several questionable publicity stunts in an effort to raise funds and awareness about war-torn Sudan, where the government-supported Janjaweed militia has killed more than 50,000 this year.
Bol once suited up to play for a minor-league hockey team but then declined to get on the ice. Another time, he boxed against William "Refrigerator'' Perry in a pay-per-view event, and on another occasion he signed up to play the role of a jockey, never actually climbing on a horse.
Despite playing eight full seasons and parts of two others in the NBA -- from 1985 to 1995 -- Bol said his bank account is depleted and he has fallen behind in the rent. He had been making a living through personal appearances and delivering speeches before the accident.
Twice in the last year, Bol was arrested at his Hartford home after domestic disputes, one involving his daughter, the other his wife. He said both were minor incidents that were not violent.
Mullin said his willingness to help his friend comes with the stipulation that Bol take steps to straighten out his life.
"I believe there's something about him that he can offer if he finds the right niche, like he did here,'' Mullin said. "All the other places it didn't work, and here it did for that short period of time.
"There's something there that needs to be illuminated. Hopefully out of this tragic situation something good can happen. That's our motivation, to try to make that the final outcome.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A friend in need
The Warriors will raise money for Manute Bol's medical expenses through a fantasy camp in which pros and former pros mix with "campers."
-- The Warriors Foundation Run with TMC camp is Nov. 19-20 in Oakland. Former Warriors stars Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond are the featured participants.
-- The camp costs $5,000, is limited to 16 people and comes with a variety of trimmings.
-- See
www.warriors.com for more information or call (510) 986-2200.
-- Donations toward Bol's expenses also are being accepted by mail: Manute Bol Medical Fund, c/o Fleet Bank, 4 North Main St., West Hartford, CT 06107
E-mail Jorge L. Ortiz at
jortiz@sfchronicle.com.
Page A - 1
I don't even know who these kids are, lol. OOOOOOOHHHHHHH, the little brother on FT! I kinda remember him. I'm not a be TV watcher, so I didn't even know that there were kids on Home Improvement.
she need to be ashamed of herself
Linear Mode
