Two years after former NBA player Manute Bol succumbed to acute kidney failure at the age of 47, his legacy lives on in the form of his son Bol Bol, a 6-foot-5 seventh grader.
Bol Bol, one of 10 children that the late Manute is survived by, demonstrated at the recent Cross Roads Elite Camp in Indianapolis that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Bol Bol has a nice stroke from distance and, unlike his father, has the ability to create off the dribble.
The recruiting site iHigh.com wrote of Bol last month:
This also was our first opportunity to see 6’3 7th Grader Bol Bol from Kansas City, MO, who appears to be out of the same mold as his late father (Manute Bol) in that he’s a long, lanky, athletic shot blocker with amazing agility and coordination for somebody so big and so young. He also has great hands and excellent skills, plays with a lot of energy and runs the court extremely well, and, with his genes and pedigree, it’s only a matter of time before he becomes a 7-footer. In other words, we’re talking about a guy with super star written all over him and, based on his projected size, athleticism, and incredible upside and potential, it’s easy to see why we will have ranked among the top five players nationally in his class when later this week we publish our Ranking of the Top Player Nationally in the Class of 2018.
The big question is how much more Bol Bol will grow. After all, he’s only a seventh grader and comes from a family where his father, aunt, grandmother and grandfather were all at least 6-foot-8 or taller. Manute Bol is tied for the tallest player in NBA history with Gheorghe Mureşan at 7-foot-7 and played in the league from 1985-95.
Kansas head coach Bill Self and Missouri’s Frank Haith might want to make a trip to Bol’s middle school as soon as possible.
