The NBA / Sam McManis : Manute Bol Is Being Lionized, but He Insists He’s No Fighter

Not since he boldly thrust a spear through the heart of a stalking lion years ago in the Sudan has Manute Bol, the 7-foot 7-inch Dinka tribesman now playing basketball for the Washington Bullets, been so threatened as he was last week.

This time, a rampaging Bull--Chicago’s 7-foot center Jawann Oldham--challenged Bol, who used clenched fists instead of a poisoned spear to try to stop the enemy.

Bol claims Oldham punched him in the back while battling for a defensive rebound, and that shoving escalated into a full-scale brawl. Even after both players were ejected, the fight was revived as the players headed off the court.

Ringside observers weren’t too impressed with Bol’s punch, but they were astonished by his reach. Bol’s arms measure 51 inches and, he reportedly has an eight-foot wingspan.

Fighting, apparently, is not Bol’s style. At least, that’s what he told writers afterward.

“I don’t want to fight,” Bol said. “If I wanted to fight, I would go to Libya and join the Marines. If (Oldham) don’t hit me, I don’t fight. But the man said that (swear) word to me. I say nothing to him. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

No doubt, this incident will add to the Bol legend, which has made Bol even more larger than life than he already is.

There are many, uh, tall stories about Manute’s youth in Sudan that, if not fabrications, are nearly impossible to verify. Bol, himself, delights in telling about how he slew the lion. The story goes that Bol wandered the swamplands of Southern Sudan, looking for the lion that attacked a herd of cattle in his village. He eventually found the lion sleeping under a tree and carefully approached the beast and drove a spear into his heart.

Quickly, Bol fled to the bushes and watched as the lion moaned and jumped into the air before dying.

Well, there wasn’t a bush for Bol to hide in after Oldham’s attack. In fact, once Bol found out that he would be fined for his participation in the scuffle, he told Tony Cotton of the Washington Post that he would leave the country before paying it.

From Bol, the NBA’s tallest player, we go to 5-foot 7-inch Spud Webb, the smallest player in league history.

In a move that surprised even Webb, NBA officials last week selected Webb to participate in the Slam Dunk competition annually held the day before next month’s All-Star game.

Webb meets the entrance requirements. Despite his height, he can dunk with either one or two hands and also has mastered a reverse dunk. Granted, Webb’s dunk aren’t as artistic as Julius Erving’s or Dominique Wilkins’, but Webb’s are equally crowd-pleasing given his diminutive stature.

“I’m having to pinch myself so I know it’s not a dream and that I’m going to be out there with those guys this year,” the Atlanta Hawks’ rookie said. “I’m starting to get butterflies. Dominique says every day, ‘I’m going to beat you.’ And I say, ‘We’ll see.’ He has a few dunks he’s going to do, and I’ve got some I’m going to do.”

Fan voting for the All-Star teams ended last week and Atlanta’s Wilkins, enjoying a superb season, finished several notches down the list of Eastern Conference forwards.

However, Wilkins is expected to be voted onto the team by Eastern Conference coaches. But he’s not an automatic selection. Even though Wilkins is playing an all-around game this season, many still consider him a one-dimensional (offensive) player. That’s a reason why Wilkins was left off the team last season.

“If they don’t pick me on the All-Star team this year, something is wrong,” Wilkins recently told Atlanta columnist Dave Kindred. “I know I’m an All-Star player. If I don’t make it this year, it’s an injustice.”

The morning after the Utah Jazz did something no other NBA team has done this season--beat the Houston Rockets at the Summit--the players were upset because they didn’t get first-class treatment traveling to Dallas for the next game.

Jazz players complained that they had to bus to Dallas, which is about a four-hour drive. Mark Eaton, Utah’s player representative, notified the players’ association, which notified the league office. No action was taken against Jazz management.

Said Utah General Manager and Coach Frank Layden: “Can you believe that? We had velour seats and the works. This was no school bus. It was a 3 1/2-hour trip, from hotel to hotel. It would have taken just as long to load our stuff, go to the airport, unload, fly, load it and unload it again. This way we had a lot of fun. Guys wore sweats, played music and we stopped halfway for sandwiches.”

When Bill Walton played for the Clippers, he seldom practiced with the team because of recurring injuries. Now that he’s with the Boston Celtics, Walton hasn’t missed many practice, although he was embarrassingly late one recent day.

Walton convinced Coach K.C. Jones to have an early practice Jan. 5 so that everyone could watch the NFL playoff games. Walton was the only Celtic who showed up late. “It was that damn Celtic alarm clock we got for Christmas,” Walton explained. “That stupid thing didn’t work.”

Responded Jones: “You better complain to Red (Auerbach) about the stupid alarm clocks because it was his idea to give them as gifts.”