Bol Bol, right, with his teammates from Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park, Kan., before a home game. Bol, the son of the former N.B.A. player Manute Bol, is a freshman.”
ROELAND PARK, Kan. — It is not by happenstance that toy basketball hoops are scattered about the house of 15-year-old Bol Bol, or that his bedroom in the basement is home to about 40 pairs of basketball shoes. His love for the game was passed down by his father, Manute Bol, the 7-foot-6 shot blocker whose impossibly long arms and lighthouse smile made him a fan favorite for 10 N.B.A. seasons before he died in 2010.
But Manute Bol’s on-court fame paled in comparison to the humanitarian work he did on behalf of his native Sudan, raising money and awareness for a country bloodied by civil war.
They are big shoes to fill in every way, and Bol Bol is struggling to do so.
“Everyone thinks that I’m probably going to be the one, so everything’s on me,” Bol said. “I want to finish what he didn’t do.”
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“He’s not his dad,” Zych said. “He’s Bol Bol. He’s this piece of clay. How this piece of clay ends up being a statue is up to him. We’re just some of the people that are going to help mold this person.”
Bol’s immediate goal is to get out of Zych’s doghouse and into the varsity rotation. He also has talked to his mother about attending a more basketball-focused prep school next year. In the meantime, Bol counts the days to summer when he returns to the A.A.U. circuit and travels to bigger cities and plays better players.
He is a boy, after all, one who often looks at a photograph he posted on Instagram. He is with his father in the hospital. He misses him.
“Pray every day to be with this man in heaven,” it reads.
