Near the end of his long and illustrious career, someone asked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who the greatest player he ever saw was.
He thought for a minute and he didn’t say Julius Erving, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson.
And most people had never heard of Manigault.
But the basketball intelligencia knew.
Manigault, just 6-1, had huge talent. Think Michael Jordan/Ja Morant level talent.
He had a traumatic childhood though. Born into a large family in Charleston, SC, Manigault was abandoned by his parents and taken in when he was about seven by a woman named Manigault, who did her best to care for him, eventually moving to Harlem to give him a better life.