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Earl the Goat - Heroin Addiction

Earl ‘The Goat’ Manigault was probably the best basketball player you have never heard of.

Even if your basketball knowledge means that you struggle to name any players apart from Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, the name Manigault should just have rolled off your tongue.

The reason that it won’t, is that Manigault’s career never got as far as the NBA. Instead, it was derailed by heroin.

Everything about Manigault’s early years suggested that he was destined for a glittering career.

First and foremost, he enjoyed a splendid nickname – he was christened ‘The Goat’ after his surname was mistaken for ‘nanny goat’.

Growing up in Harlem, he soon developed a reputation as the best street player in the city, which is no mean feat when that city is New York.

He enjoyed a stunning schoolboy career, and set the Benjamin Franklin High School record by scoring 57 points in a game.

Manigault stood only six foot one inches tall, but aided by the leg weights he wore as a child, developed a prodigious leap.

It was said he was able to kick the ten foot high ring of the basketball net, with either foot, and from a standing start. It was also claimed that he could rescue dollar bills from the top of the backboard.

For all the legends that surround him though, the best indication of his greatness came from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Abdul-Jabbar was one of the NBA’s best ever players, although you may know him better from his appearances in Bruce Lee movies and Airplane.

Abdul-Jabbar played with Manigault on the streets of New York, and when he was asked who the greatest player he played with was replied: “It would have to be Earl ‘The Goat’ Manigault.”

The Goat never got as far as the NBA though. He was expelled from school for smoking marajuana and was unable to leave drugs behing for another 20 years.

He received 75 offers of basketball scholarships from colleges, but left after only a term  because of his poor grades and disagreements with the team coach.

Manigault then returned to Harlem and developed a heroin habit which led to two spells in prison, for drug possession and theft.

Ultimately his story is one of redemption. After guitting heroin Manigault formed the “Walk Away From Drugs” basketball tournament for kids in Harlem, which he ran until his death in 1998.

He will always be remembered as a great basketball talent, who was lost to drugs.