Manute Bol Gains Respect From Startled Foes

The towering gamble the Washington Bullets took in drafting 7-foot-6 Manute Bol is beginning to pay tall dividends, as a growing number of shell-shocked NBA foes can testify.

Raw and untested when the Bullets made him the 31st player taken in the draft, the rookie has suddenly blossomed into a feared defensive presence--a player who single-handedly can alter another team’s offense.

The Bullets, viewing Bol as the ultimate draft project, hoped that Bol would come around in time, signing him to a three-year, $300,000 contract. But no one expected the antenna-like Sudanese tribesman to come around as quickly as Bol has.

“He’s just unbelievable,” glowed Washington’s Jeff Ruland, the burly 6-11 center who is positively dwarfed by Bol. “Every time he plays, he just gets better and better.”

Bol, who played just one year of Division II basketball and never even saw a basketball until 1979, started the season on the deep bench--as a novelty for the fans, as much as anything else.

But by the fifth week of the season, Bol had seized a regular slot in the Bullets rotation, supplanting veteran center Tom McMillen. The pivotal game was a road contest in San Antonio, when Washington was looking at a 34-point deficit against the Spurs late in the third quarter.

Bol entered the game and turned into a human fly swatter, batting away seven shots and altering a dozen others in dismantling the Spurs offensive scheme, allowing his team to execute a 31-point comeback and draw within three points in an eventual 104-97 loss.

His second half shot-blocking performance tied a team record of seven blocks in a half.

Since that game, the number of Manute believers has been growing with each passing contest.

Against the Philadelphia 76ers, Bol slapped away a 20-foot jump shot by center Moses Malone and altered another half-dozen of his shots. Bol rejected a power dunk by Charles Barkley and was given a standing ovation by a surprisingly appreciative Philadelphia crowd when he fouled out of the game. He had six blocks in the contest.

In following games, he blocked a driving dunk by Seattle’s Xavier McDaniel and spread ruin on the offenses of Detroit, Portland and Sacramento (8 blocks, 7 in the fourth quarter). Since the Spurs game, the Sudanese swatter is averaging 5.3 blocks.

“I haven’t seen anybody block these kinds of shots before,” said teammate Jeff Malone. “But I haven’t seen too many people 7-foot-7.”

“I don’t want to block it every time, I want to alter other people’s shots,” Bol said. “I can’t tell you that other teams are afraid to take the ball inside against me. I can’t say that,” Bol said.

But opposing players can.

“It’s like trying to shoot over a building,” testified Philadelphia guard Paul Thompson. “Usually a player needs about 15 feet to get off a shot (versus an on-coming defensive player). But with Bol, you have to go out 20--he just keeps stretching out his body.”

And Bullets fans, who haven’t had much to cheer about from their team in the 1980s, greet every Bol block with chants of, “Manute, Manute, Manute.”

What’s most amazing about Bol’s emergence into a force in the NBA is the fact that he rightfully should be a college sophomore.

He entered the the June NBA draft after a single season at the University of Bridgeport (Conn.), where he averaged 22.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and seven blocked shots. This summer, he played with the Rhode Island Gulls of the United States Basketball League, averaging 14 points, 14.2 rebounds and 11 blocked shots--including one 18 rejection performance.

But Bol, who grew up as a cowherd in the Sudan and is a member of the Dinka tribe, weighed just 190 pounds when he was drafted. An intense weight and strength program has added about 18 pounds, although Bol still looks not unlike a shot-blocking flagpole.

“I feel stronger, a little bit,” Bol said.

Bol’s development into a defensive force has not been accompanied by his development into any kind of offensive threat. He’s averaging less than two points per game, mostly on dunks or tip-ins, and is hitting only about 13% of his free throws.

“We’re not concerned with his offense,” Washington Coach Gene Shue said. “He’s got a good touch. The problem is that his body is so weak that he gets pushed away from the basket. He hasn’t learned to shoot off-balance yet.”

“Coach told me I’m going to help out on defense and the offense will come along in time,” Bol said. “I’m going to work hard and I’m going to make it.”