Have you ever just wanted to say something, to just speak out and you bit your tongue over and over?  I have pondered whether to say anything about some events of this past week because of several reasons.  First, limited audience interest.  If you are like me, you tend to think the world of professional sports is full of greedy crybabies.  And because I think that, I have lost interest in most professional sports.  I do still watch an occasional baseball game but the one I am most interested in is cycling.   Talk about a limited audience!!  Second, I am truly sick of hearing about the spoiled rich kids who “do their own thing” and then expect the world to bow down.  Even as I write this I know there are many sides to a story but this is my opinion.

After the past week of hearing (ad infinitum, ad nauseum) about the the Miami Heat winning the sweepstakes for 2 players and the “Lebron-James-ego-extravanganza” on ESPN (which I did not watch nor care to), it is time to talk about someone who got lost in the mix. Many of you will have never heard of Manute Bol.  I am old enough to remember his appearance in the NBA as the tallest player in the NBA at 7’7″.  He was drafted by the Washington Bullets in 1985 and later traded to several teams.  He played 10 seasons in the NBA and earned an estimated $6 million.  $6 million dollars!  I will never earn that in three lifetimes!   I know…I know…what you are thinking but please hear me out!  One story I read said that he died almost penniless-not from wasting it away on drugs, alcohol, and wild living.  He gave it away!!  That’s right!  HE GAVE IT AWAY!  Manute was a Sudanese Christian who once stated, “God guided me to America and gave me a good job, but He also gave me a heart so I would look back.”   He never accomplished much on the basketball court, never had a formal education and knew very little English but when he messed up he would say, My bad.”  The players repeated the phrase to poke fun at him until it caught on in sports and mainstream vernacular.  (Now you know the rest of the story)  Manute spent his money building schools and churches for his native Sudanese people.  He sought to bring peace and to work on peace between the Christians and Muslims in Sudan who had faced 22 years of civil war.  It was his humanitarian efforts that eventually led his kidney disease to worsen and brought  him in contact with the skin disease that took his life.   In all the hoopla surrounding the money-grubbing that has gone on, a quiet giant of a man went to be with his Savior.  No, Manute.  It isn’t “My bad.”  But it is “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Any thoughts you care to share with us?  I would love to hear them.  What are doing to give your life away?