Manute Bol’s son looks like his Dad and may be one of America’s most promising middle school hoopsters
The late Manute Bol is best known for his incredibly elongated 7-foot-7 frame, a height that made him the tallest player in NBA history. In more recent times he's also earned recognition for his legacy of generous charity work for his native Sudan.
Yet, as pointed out by Prep Rally's brotherly blog Ball Don't Lie, Bol also had a night where he showed he could really stroke the deep ball, connecting on a remarkable six 3-pointers for the 76ers in a game against the Suns. Now, some two years after Bol's death, a new, living legacy for his basketball talent has emerged: Manute Bol's son, Bol Bol. And like his father, Bol Bol is already proving that his game has range that is often belied by his stunning height.
Bol Bol is a seventh-grader in Kansas and already stands a lanky 6-foot-5. As you can see in the video above, the middle schooler already bears a stunning resemblance to his father, too, with extremely long and slender appendages that sometimes seem to be held together by mere rubber bands rather than flesh and bone.
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Yet, unlike Manute Bol, Bol Bol is already proving that he has an incredibly diverse game at a young age. The seventh-grader can stroke the three. He can handle the ball and distribute behind-the-back passes.
And, fittingly, the younger Bol can clean up in the paint when needed, just like his father.
Bol was the talk of the tournament at a recent event put on by Crossroads Elite, where the seventh-grader thoroughly outshined his co-competitors, occasionally dominating games from the outside and frequently emerging as a menace on the interior.
Naturally, critics will claim that the younger Bol will need to fill his rather substantial frame for him to be effective at the next level. Bol's defenders will surely point out that his father was plenty successful even with a lanky frame and Stetch Armstrong-like arms, traits that his son has already inherited. And given the genes that have already kicked in, there's no telling how tall a 6-foot-5 seventh-grader may grow to be.
In the meantime, we can all rest comfortably knowing that Bol Bol showed some of the talent to follow in his father's rather peculiar distance shooting footsteps, if only at a middle school event.
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