A QUESTION OF WEIGHT : Bullet Center Manute Bol Is Still in Need of Strength After Adding 30 Pounds

Manute Bol is finding out what it’s like to be asked about his weight as well as his height.

The 7-7 Washington Bullets’ center added 30 pounds to his needle-thin frame during an intensive six-week program last summer in New Orleans.

Though he is noticeably heftier in the chest and shoulders, when he wears a pair of long pants he still looks like a man on stilts.

Bol’s height and bony frame probably get him more stares than any other athlete in the world. He reportedly weighed less than 200 pounds at the end of last season, his rookie year. When he enters a game, there is an audible gasp from the crowd.

Still, Bol says the offseason work helped him “feel better about myself, taught me how to take care of myself--eat right and do the things I have to do to gain weight and strength and keep it.”

“I found it takes a lot of hard work to take care of your body, but I knew I had to do it if I was going to help myself and my team.”

Bol’s program was supervised by Mackie Shilstone, who worked on fitness and nutrition with heavyweight boxing champion Michael Spinks. Shilstone used weight training and stamina and agility drills on Bol; he also monitored the Sudanese player’s diet.

“Because of cultural differences, Manute didn’t care for fish,” Shilstone said. “He had ribs, chicken and so many cornish game hens I’m surprised he didn’t fly away.”

Chuck Douglas, a public relations and coaching assisant for the Bullets, said Bol worked hard for Shilstone not only to please himself and his teammates, but with the hope that it would help deflect questions about his unusual dimensions.

“Everywhere I went last year, people talked about my body, and now I won’t have to hear them anymore,” Bol said. “My coaches and Bob (General Manager Bob Ferry) have always told me if I would work hard for them, they would work hard for me. So that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“He doesn’t understand how a stranger can just walk up to him and ask how tall he is,” said Douglas, one of Bol’s close friends. “One time, a chubby lady asked his height and he wanted to know how much she weighed.

“He has a real kidding nature, so sometimes he’ll tell people he’s 5-2. When we’re together, we get noticed and stopped a lot, and when someone makes a wisecrack, he’ll usually laugh it off.”

When Douglas was hired last year, he was told that part of his job would be driving Bol to practice and games because he had no driver’s license (Bol now has a learner’s permit and can drive his van, with the backseat removed and the driver’s seat pushed way back).

“The job turned into me helping him go to the store and the bank and everywhere,” Douglas said. “We were together so much that it was natural that we became real good friends. We went bowling and to the movies and played pool.”

Shilstone, after working with Bol, predicted the center would rewrite the NBA record book.

On the court, however, Bol’s career has been most affected by the arrival of three-time NBA most valuable player Moses Malone, who is about 9 inches shorter than Bol, but head and shoulders above him in basketball accomplishment.

After playing 26 minutes per game last season, Bol averaged just 16 minutes in Washington’s first nine games this year. And after winning the NBA shot-blocking title in 1985-86 and setting a rookie record of 397 blocks, Bol has averaged less than three points and two blocks per game so far this season.

“When guys got hurt last year, I got to play a lot,” Bol said. “This year, Moses is here, but I want to play more. Sometimes I get bothered by not playing. People say my time will come, but I don’t want to wait for my time to come.

“There’s no question my game is better than last season. I want to use the weight I have and show what I can do.”

Bol said Malone’s presence makes practice tough, but “I don’t have to worry about fouling out in practice. Practice is just practice. It makes no difference.”

Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz, the NBA’s 1984-85 shot-blocking champion, suggested last season, during a stretch when Bol was routinely blocking six or more shots per game, that he couldn’t sustain that pace because the opposition would stop challenging him.

That prediction seems to be coming true. Regardless of Bol’s playing time, he is blocking a shot only about every 9 1/2 minutes this year, compared to one every 5 1/2 minutes last season.

“People don’t like to get their shots blocked, so if they realize there’s a man in there who will prevent them from going to the hoop, they’ll alter their shot, which can be as good as blocking a shot,” Washington Coach Kevin Loughery said.

Loughery said that Bol’s spectacular start last season overshadowed the fact that the Bullets considered him a long-range “project” when they drafted him in the second round in 1985.

“He’s a three-, four-, maybe even a five-year project and when you consider that, I think his development has been pretty good,” Loughery said. “Last year, he was forced to play more minutes than anybody expected. Now Moses Malone is our center and he will play a lot of minutes. Manute has built up his upper body, but he has a long way to go strengthwise.”

Loughery also said Bol has not improved enough offensively to get extensive playing time.

“He needs to get involved offensively so we’re not going 4-on-5,” Loughery said. “It’s not the skill factor; it’s more the strength factor that’s holding him back. It’s his inability to handle the ball, catch the ball and maintain his position.”

Bol, however, has been written off as a player before. The NBA’s official scout, Marty Blake, recommended that no team draft him.

“He’s been an underdog every step of the way,” Douglas said. “People said he would never play in college, and he did. Then they said he’d never be drafted, and he was. Then they said he’d never make the team, and he did. Then they said he’d never play, and he did. Then they said he would never be a factor, and he led the NBA in blocked shots.

“Now they say he’ll never be a part of the offense. We’ll see.”