Shaquille O’ Neal came into the NBA with great fanfare as perhaps the best big man prospect since Bill Walton. That takes in some great players like Dave Cowens, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and more.
It wasn’t like that for Manute Bol. A 7-7 and 200 lb. Dinka tribesman from Sudan, Bol arrived as a curiosity. A second round pick, no one even knew for sure how old he was. Wikipedia lists him as being born between 1946 and 1962. That means he could have been as old as 39 in his rookie season and as old as 51 in his final go-round.
But despite his rail-thin stature, Bol was no pushover. Back home, he famously killed a lion with a spear. Bol later modestly insisted that it wasn’t that big a deal because the lion was sleeping.
_You_ try killing a sleeping lion with a spear.
O’ Neal was a major challenge for Bol. At 7-1 and 300+, O’ Neal moved like a big cat. [In this video,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgNQwgXgfVM) you can’t say that Bol completely controlled him, but he clearly frustrates O’ Neal and at times gets the best of him.
It’s amazing to watch these two challenge each other and how they work things out. Among other things, Bol is a much better passer than we realized.