Tall Stories: It’s New Bol Game

After the Washington Bullets drafted Manute Bol, the 7-6, 190-pound center from the Sudan, General Manager Bob Ferry said: “The upside is, if he can pick up some weight he’s got a chance to be the best shot-blocker who ever lived.”

Wrote Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post: “The downside is, if they don’t put a screen over the drain, the first time he showers after practice he could be gone forever.

“We’re talking tall and thin.

“So tall and so thin that if he needed a summer job he could be a foul pole at Memorial Stadium. Or a stake for the tomato plants that Earl Weaver grows. Or a dipstick. Or a radio antenna on a Greyhound Bus. Or the straw that stirs the drink. Or, if he put his arms out, a goalpost. Or, with an eraser on his head, the world’s tallest pencil.

“Tall.

“Put a dish on his head and you have your own cable-TV system.

“Thin.

“Turn him sideways and he looks like a pool cue on steroids.”

Add Kornheiser: “You probably won’t believe this,” he said, “but I think drafting Bol was a terrific move. Let’s go best-case scenario here. Say the Bullets have a great season and get to the finals of the playoffs, where they’ll undoubtedly have to play the Lakers. With Bol, the Bullets have come up with the last piece of the puzzle--someone to match up against Chuck Nevitt. You wouldn’t want to get to the seventh game of the championship series and have Nevitt be the guy to beat you.”

Add Bol: You never would have guessed who his favorite player is. Tommy Hine of the Hartford Courant sat with him in a restaurant while they watched the draft on TV and reported that Bol, after Patrick Ewing was chosen, shouted over the noise: “Hey, I can’t hear. I want to see my hero, Chris Mullin.”

Trivia Time: Charles White will be the seventh Heisman Trophy winner to wear a Ram uniform. Name the other six. (Answer below.)

When San Antonio drafted shot-happy Alfredrick Hughes of Loyola Chicago, Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, commentating for WTBS, wrote him off as a “lifer” in the Continental Basketball Assn.

In rebuttal, Loyola assistant coach Doug Bruno told Ish Haley of the Dallas Times Herald: “Bob Ryan probably only saw him play one game, against Georgetown. Chris Mullin was a stiff against Georgetown. Remember, Ryan was the same guy who said after the first game of the NBA finals that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was over the hill and a total stiff, a non-rebounder.”

Would-you-believe-it dept.: The Pacific 10 was quickly wiped out in the NCAA basketball tournament, but it had 12 players chosen in the draft, sharing top honors with the Atlantic Coast Conference. Meanwhile, the mighty Big East had 10 players chosen.

Others were Missouri Valley 11, Southwest 10, Big Ten 9, Sun Belt 8, Big Eight 7, Southeast 5 and Metro 3.

Trivia Answer: Tom Harmon (Michigan) 1940, Bruce Smith (Minnesota) 1941, Les Horvath (Ohio State) 1944, Glenn Davis (Army) 1946, Terry Baker (Oregon State) 1962 and John Cappelletti (Penn State) 1973.

Note: Billy Cannon (LSU) 1959 and Doug Flutie (Boston College) 1984 were drafted by the Rams but went to other leagues, Cannon to the AFL and Flutie to the USFL.

Quotebook

NBA scout Marty Blake, on the number of centers picked high in the draft: “We have a saying in the NBA. Centers sell tickets, and guards sell shoes.”