 Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Liz Wade. And I'm Colin Lover. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live. Ten men are on the court. Five on each team. They are playing a game with an orange ball. They pass it back and forth. They bounce it on the hard gym floor. They are trying to get the ball through the hoop. The hoop is small and high in the air, so the men must throw the ball with speed and accuracy. The teams try to block each other's attempts to throw the ball. This is the world's second most popular team sport, basketball. Many famous basketball players are from the United States. But not all. Manute Ball played for almost ten years in the NBA, the National Basketball Association in the United States. He was not from the US, but from Sudan. For many years he was the tallest player in the NBA. Many people remember him for playing basketball. Others remember him for how much he loved his home country of Sudan. Today's spotlight is about the life of Manute Ball. Manute Ball was born in Sudan in a village of the Dinka people. His name means special blessing. Before Ball was born, his mother had two babies die, so his parents believed Ball was a special blessing. They hoped he would grow to take care of the family's cows. But Ball always wanted to do more. He wanted to explore different places. The Dinka are some of the tallest people in Africa. But Ball was tall even for the Dinkers. He was about 2.3 meters tall. When he was young, many people would watch him and laugh at him. Ball's cousin remembered how difficult it was for Ball to be so tall. He told the Washington Post. Manute did not like people to look at him. When he went to the market, traffic stopped. Many people stopped their cars and got out to laugh at him. Ball's cousin thought Ball could be a very good basketball player. Another cousin told Ball that he could be rich and famous if he played in the United States. So Ball decided to try playing basketball. Ball started playing for a small team in Khartoum. But he did not know how to play. But he worked hard and learned quickly. Tony Amin, the coach who guided and led the team, remembers teaching Ball how to play. He described one of the things Ball learned how to do. Manute was very, very happy when someone shot the basketball and he blocked it. You do not find tall players like Manute on other teams. We were expecting that a player like this would one day achieve something. In 1982, a coach from the United States saw Ball playing. He immediately brought Ball to the U.S. to play basketball. Ball was tall, but he was not very strong. People made fun of him because of his height and body. One coach even said that Ball was so thin that he would break like an insect. Many people wondered why he was in the NBA. They thought he was a joke. But those people were wrong. Ball started playing in the NBA in 1985. In his first year, he blocked 397 shots. This was an average of 5 shots each game. It was also a new record for a player in his first NBA season. He did not score many points, but Ball became famous for blocking shots. Some people even called him a shot blocking machine. Ball played in the NBA for a long time. This is unusual. Many people get injured and leave basketball early. The average player only plays for five years. Yet Ball played in the NBA for almost ten years. He played for four different teams. Ball lived and worked in the United States, but he loved Sudan. And he never forgot his home country or the people who lived there. Around that time, Sudan was in the middle of war. Ball often traveled back to Sudan to help others. He supported family members who were living in Sudan during the war. Ball explained to Sports Illustrated. God guided me to America and gave me a good job. But he also gave me a heart, so I would look back. Ball worked for peace in Sudan. He encouraged the opposing sides to come together. He even took part in government peace talks. He spent much of his money helping Sudan. But he also believed that education was very important. He believed that the way to achieve peace in Sudan would come through education. So he helped build a school in his home village of Turile, the Manut Bowl School. Then he had a bigger dream. Ball told The Telegraph My dream is to build schools across Sudan, because with education you can have a good life, find a job and improve. The children are the future of Sudan, no matter where they come from. Children continue to learn at the Manut Bowl School that he helped build. Today it has two buildings and six classrooms. And in February 2017, the students placed first in their county for their annual exams. Ball's last plan before he died was to build 41 schools throughout Sudan. But he was never able to build those schools. He died in 2010 from kidney failure and a rare skin condition. He was only 47 years old. When Ball died, one of his teams released a statement that described how Ball had influenced the world around him. It said, He was a great basketball player. But people will remember him for how hard he worked. They will remember him working in his native Sudan and the cities in which he played. What about you? Are there famous people who have helped your country or city? What will people remember when you are gone? Tell us about it. You can leave a comment on our website or email us at radio at radioenglish.net And you can find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash spotlight radio. The writer of this program was Lauren Anders-Visser. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at www.radioenglish.net This program is called Manute Bowl Blocker and Builder. Visit our website to download our free official app for Android or Apple devices. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.