When South Sudan’s basketball team qualified for the Paris Olympics 2024, “it instilled renewed hope and confidence in the people of Africa’s youngest country”, said Semafor.
Their history was “defined by conflict” and one of the longest civil wars on record, said BBC Sport Africa. But South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, is “forging a new identity through basketball”. The world’s youngest sovereign state now exports “world-class players” to America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) – like two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng, a refugee who went on to represent Great Britain in the London 2012 Olympics.
At their first appearance at the Fiba men’s World Cup last year, South Sudan – nicknamed the Bright Stars – became the top-ranking African side, earning them a spot at this year’s Olympics. Last weekend, in a warm-up match in London, they came “within seconds” of a historic win against basketball Goliaths: the USA.
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Nascent South Sudan in the spotlight
“The entire country came to a halt,” reported Semafor’s Akol Nyok Akol Dok from Juba, the capital. “One night in London, South Sudan was one point away from slaying the American basketball dragon.”
Having already defeated Great Britain on Thursday, the Bright Stars “almost prevailed” against a team “replete” with some of the greatest players in basketball history, including “actual legends” like LeBron James. A “late bucket” from James cost South Sudan the match, and they lost 101-100. But they “won the hearts of the South Sudanese people, and many people around the world”.
The team was “amazing”, said Team USA coach Steve Kerr. “You think about what that team has had to overcome to qualify for the Olympics; the violence, the strife in their country, all the obstacles, it’s an incredible story.”
The match also “served as a preview for the Games, with the teams scheduled to meet in a Group C clash in Paris”, said CNN. South Sudan can “take confidence” into its opening game against Puerto Rico.
“This moment gives us the feeling that we have finally arrived on the global stage,” said Dok. Although most “cannot locate South Sudan on a map”, they won’t forget the Bright Stars.
Luol Deng: from child refugee to basketball behemoth
The man credited with the team’s success is Luol Deng, who came to the UK as a child refugee after fleeing the “brutal” civil war, said The Times. He discovered basketball in Brixton and went on to “fame and fortune in an 18-year NBA career”, becoming one of the league’s most successful African players.
But his future was “always going to lie back home”. He returned to South Sudan to set up the Luol Deng Academy in Juba and train the next generation. “I saw the potential of the country,” said Deng, who was appointed president of the country’s Basketball Federation in 2019.
South Sudan is “unique”, Deng told the BBC’s Kelvin Kamathi, because many of its 64 tribes are “very lanky, tall, very athletic”. The Dinka tribe is known as the tallest in Africa.
“Genetically, basketball is a sport that goes well with us,” he said. His squad includes Wenyen Gabriel, who played in the NBA and now plays in Israel, and Nuni Omot, who plays in the China Basketball Association.
But there are “no resources”. South Sudan’s GDP per capita is the fourth-lowest in the world, after Syria, Afghanistan and Burundi. “We do have the product, but we don’t have the facilities to produce great players,” he said.
Indeed, none of his Olympic squad were raised in Africa – all were relocated abroad as children, becoming part of the vast Sudanese diaspora. The team tells “the tragic story of the region and its various civil wars”, said The Times.
But it also “inspires the diaspora to return back home and do something positive”, Deng told the BBC. “Since I was born, I have known nothing but conversations about war. Now we are finding a new story.”
Basketball courts are already being built across the country, inspiring a new generation of players. “You know how proud every South Sudanese is when you talk about basketball,” he said. “Even if they don’t play basketball, they can’t wait to tell you about it. It’s a relief. Finally, we have something positive to say.”