Photo Credit: Getty Images
Former All-Star Jayson Williams Says Manute Bol Was 55 Years Old When Playing In Philly
Former NBA All-Star Jayson Williams (with a ‘Y’, not the ‘White Chocolate Williams’) has some of the craziest stories about the NBA and its players. One of the craziest involves himself.
On February 14, 2002, Williams shot and killed his 55-year-old driver Costas Christofi, whom he invited to his mansion after a night out. Williams gave a house tour and showed Christofi his shotgun that he thought was unloaded. It wasn’t, and the gun went off in Williams’ hands, killing Christofi. Williams wiped the gun off, jumped in his pool and asked one of his friends to get rid of his clothes. (Check the full story via Sports Illustrated)
On January 11, 2010, Williams pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He was released from custody on April 13, 2012 to serve the rest of his sentence on probation.
The incident led to Williams becoming an alcoholic. Now, sober, he is trying to guide himself back into the right way.
In a podcast with VICE Sports from last year, he was telling the most ridiculous stories about Manute Bol, claiming that he was 55 years old when playing for the Sixers. Williams and Bol were teammates when Williams first came into the league in the early 90’s. He also tells the story on how Bol never played sober, because he was drinking Heinekens all the time.
“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 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.”
Manute Bol, was listed at 7 ft 7, making him the tallest player in NBA history, and was believed to have been born on October 16, 1962. This would have made him 28 years old at the time him and Williams were teammates. But Williams believes that he was a lot older.
“He used to say that he was 35 years old, but I used to be on the bench looking at all the circles and scars around his head, and I asked him one day, ‘Manute, what are those scars on your head?’ And he says, ‘Well, the white man lost my birth certificate in the jungle, so every five years I take a rock and I slice one across my head.’ I was like, ‘All right,’ and then I started looking at it the next game and I said, ‘Holy s—, Manute Bol is 55 years old.’”
https://soundcloud.com/vicesports-124728986/jayson-williams-talks
