Jayson Williams Claims Manute Bol Never Played Any Game While He Was Sober

Manute Bol was a unique player—some may even describe him as a freak of nature. The Sudanese center was among the tallest players the NBA had ever seen, standing at 7’7″. Additionally, he incorporated lessons from his NBA career and elements of his own culture into his interesting play style. All of which helped create some amazing hardwood court moments.

Jayson Williams Claims Manute Bol Never Played Any Game While He Was Sober

Manute Bol is maybe one of the several “unicorns” that have advanced through the NBA’s ranks. Manute spent ten years in the NBA, playing for the Miami Heat, the Washington Bullets, the Golden State Warriors, and the Philadelphia 76ers. Furthermore, although his height helped him stand out, it wasn’t the only quality that set him out.

After being moved to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1990, Bol was placed in the same locker room as Jayson Williams, who is most renowned for murdering a limo driver by accident in 2002 and spending more than two years in jail for it.

During a podcast interview with Vice Sports in 2016, Williams discussed his memories of the two seasons he spent playing with Bol in Philadelphia. The 76ers were allegedly happy to let Manute do what he believed was best for his game, which supposedly includes guzzling as much Heineken as he desired, despite the fact that most NBA franchises rightly disapprove of players drinking before a game:

“They used to let Manute Bol drink the whole time, so he would drink Heinekens all day long to  help put on weight, so Manute Bol never played sober in one basketball game.

He used to put on all his clothes last, so what he would do, after he got out of the shower, he would put on his socks, and then that was it—and he would just walk around the locker room naked drinking Heinekens.”

It’s only crazy if it doesn’t work, and for Manute Bol, everything appeared to go really well.

The large guy had several difficulties upon his arrival in the United States since he was not fluent in English and did not have the necessary birth certificate or other paperwork to be admitted to a Division I basketball program.

The franchise had a number of problems to deal with, such as Bol’s massive weight of 180 pounds (Mureşan was around 315 pounds for comparison) and his inability to add weight to the bar when required to perform 10 repetitions of the bench press.

But in the end, he discovered an unorthodox tactic, which enabled him to gain and keep weight.

 

 

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