It was a dream debut on the Olympic basketball stage for the world’s youngest country.
South Sudan’s men’s basketball team defeated Puerto Rico 90-79 in Paris on Sunday in its first-ever appearance at the Games, but the result meant more than just picking up two points in Group C. For South Sudan Basketball Federation President Luol Deng, it was the culmination of everything that he and the team had worked so hard to achieve. The road to representation
Deng is a former two-time NBA All-Star and spent 15 years in the league with the likes of the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers. He was born in Wau, in what is now South Sudan, before the country’s independence. His family was displaced due to the Second Sudanese Civil War, moving to Egypt when Deng was a child before the family was granted political asylum in the UK, arriving in London, England.
He moved to the US at 14 to pursue a basketball career, going on to play college hoops at Duke before being drafted seventh overall by Chicago in 2004. He represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics in London.
After his playing career concluded in 2019, Deng became heavily involved with allowing the country in which he was born to tell its story and be represented on the international stage. He currently serves as an assistant coach to the team alongside his role as president, having previously worked as head coach and player liaison.
South Sudan officially gained independence from Sudan in 2011 following a referendum, making it the world’s newest widely-recognized state. It has since experienced a civil war of its own that officially ended in 2018 and is listed as one of the least developed countries in the world by the United Nations.
Like Deng, several of the players on the Olympic roster are refugees who were forced to leave South Sudan or were born elsewhere after their families had been displaced.
“We didn’t just randomly put a team together. I’ve known a lot of these players since they were so young, and I’ve kept up with a lot of other players that I didn’t know, but they were on my radar,” he told CNN. “And before I took over the president of the federation, I did imagine, ‘What if those guys committed to play for our nation?’ And this is the result because it’s all come together.
‘We play to win’
No one can ever question Deng’s commitment to the project – according to South Sudan head coach Royal Ivey, Deng has been funding the team out of his pocket for four years.
It all appears to have been worth it, however, with Deng stating his pride at being part of “nation building” and that there is “no better feeling” than wearing a shirt that bears the name of South Sudan, though he wishes that he had gotten the opportunity to play for the team.
“For now, the polo is good,” he laughed.
After winning its first game and writing its name into the history books, speculation about how far this team can go has already ramped up, though Deng believes that the group’s main goal has already been achieved.
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