Luol Deng, former NBA superstar who wants to make South Sudan a basketball powerhouse
Former Chicago Bulls player Luol Deng (right), now coach of the South Sudanese men’s national team and president of the country’s basketball federation, on August 2, 2019 in Juba.
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The former Chicago Bulls winger went on to coach the men’s national team and president of the nation’s basketball federation.
“Luol Deng the Legend”, “Thank you Luol Deng and the Bright Stars”: Fan banners welcoming the South Sudan basketball team on December 2, 2020 at Juba International Airport set the tone. The players had just returned from qualifying matches for Afrobasket 2021 in Kigali, Rwanda.
And the real hero was him: Luol Deng, former professional basketball player, retired NBA superstar since 2019 and who took the reins of the South Sudan Basketball Federation, after being elected president, the same year.
The former Chicago Bulls winger also took on the role of coach of the men’s national team, the same one that claimed two victories – against Mali and Rwanda – in Kigali. The South Sudanese are now holding their breath as they approach the final qualifying round, which will take place February 19-21, ahead of the continental tournament scheduled for August in the Rwandan capital.
But the recent performances of the selection – yet the youngest and least experienced in the competition – have something to give them hope. Already, its ranking has climbed nine places, installing South Sudan to 98th place in the world, “in the top 100 of FIBA [International Basketball Federation]”, rejoiced on Twitter the South Sudanese Federation.
Among the greatest humans
Initially, the Bright Stars were not even due to travel to Kigali, failing to pass the pre-qualification stage. It was Algeria’s unexpected withdrawal that allowed them to return to competition at the last minute. “When I got the call, it gave us five days to prepare and get to the tournament,” recalls Luol Deng, who met in Juba, the South Sudanese capital, at the end of January.
The country, which became independent in 2011, had never competed in international championships, but is no stranger to basketball by far. “We want to become a basketball powerhouse and dominate the sport, not only in Africa but in the world. It’s like Jamaica with track and field, or Kenya and Ethiopia with long distance, says Luol Deng. In basketball, if we get it right in terms of organization and facilities, we have our chance because we have the talent. ”
There is this gift that nature has given to South Sudan and its Nilotic peoples, who are among the greatest humans on the planet. Like Manute Bol, an NBA player who died in 2010, active in the field from 1985 to 1997. Standing at 2.31m, he blocked opposing shots, but also made a three-point baskets.
It was this Dinka, born in Turalei, who introduced Luol Deng to basketball. He used to train his older brother on his trips to the Egyptian coast in Alexandria, “a very beautiful place that he also visited to support the Sudanese refugee community,” said Luol Deng, who was part of it. At the age of 5, he fled his hometown of Wau, along with his siblings. It was 1990, the civil war between southern and northern Sudan was raging and Omar Al-Bashir had just taken power in Khartoum. A few years later, the siblings moved to south London where Luol Deng’s father was granted political asylum.
“Building this federation”
Another famous man in the world of sport will determine the rest of his career: Jimmy Rodgers, the coach of the Brixton Topcats, “discovers” Luol Deng and urges him to move towards basketball rather than football. The rest is an irresistible rise to the top: leaving the United States at the age of 14 with a scholarship to play basketball (“My father was happy because I was leaving the neighborhood where I could have to go in the wrong direction. I was going to do a good study, ”he recalls); the signing of the first contract with the Chicago Bulls in 2004, at barely 20; then a fifteen-year professional basketball career at the highest level.
In 2015, he inaugurated the Manute Bol Court at the University of Juba, two basketball courts accompanied by training programs that allow hundreds of young people to practice the sport for free in the capital. He now hopes to be able to “build this federation from the ground up and extend activities to the regions, because there is talent everywhere, not just in Juba”.
The adventure of Afrobasket gives it the opportunity to prove itself and attract new support to develop sport in the country, where the facilities are almost non-existent and where even the federation does not have the necessary spaces to practice. The players of the national team come from the diaspora and from clubs and leagues mainly from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, “because the players in the country can work hard, without the infrastructure, it is impossible to have the level ”, laments Deng.
Financed entirely out of pocket, will the Bright Stars’ participation in this competition lead to new victories? Luol Deng is aware that the next stage, in Tunisia, will be difficult, because “the teams have seen what we are capable of and they will be very well prepared”.
But in this young nation still marked by crises and violence, “it is anyway a positive story that will give birth to other positive stories”, wants to believe Luol Deng. What can perhaps, thanks to basketball, “change the way we talk about our country”.
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Source: The World
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