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It’s unquestionably one of many best underdog tales in sports activities. The South Sudanese nationwide workforce, representing a war-torn nation with no single indoor basketball court docket, is on the cusp of creating its Olympic debut after rising from the bottom ranges of African basketball.
Often known as the Brilliant Stars, they made world headlines final week by coming inside one basket of successful an Olympic warm-up game in opposition to the US. South Sudan led by as many as 16 factors and appeared on observe for one of many best upsets within the historical past of the game, earlier than LeBron James took over late within the sport and carried the U.S. to a 101-100 victory.
The near-win was virtually as unlikely because the Brilliant Stars’ journey. South Sudan solely gained independence from Sudan in 2011, making it the world’s youngest nation. The nationwide workforce had by no means competed in a significant match till 2021. As not too long ago as final yr, they had been practising outside on flooded concrete courts as eagles circled above their heads. Now, with a roster consisting completely of refugees and the youngsters of refugees, they’re the primary South Sudanese workforce in any sport to qualify for the Olympics.
“It nonetheless doesn’t really feel actual, even now,” captain Kuany Kuany advised Basketball Eternally earlier this yr. “Like, once in a while, you simply sit again and say to your self, ‘Did we actually do that?’”
The workforce’s speedy ascension stems from the tireless work of former NBA All-Star Luol Deng, who took management of the game in his homeland 5 years in the past because the president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation. Deng, who was additionally the top coach as not too long ago as 2021 and nonetheless serves as an assistant, rebuilt the nationwide workforce and funded it personally with the imaginative and prescient that it could exist to encourage hope, pleasure and unity in a rustic ravaged by warfare and divided by tribalism.
South Sudan consists of 64 tribes and these entrenched allegiances have led to deepening division and years of brutal battle. By recruiting the most effective gamers accessible with no second thought for tribal affiliation, Deng’s mission was to dispel the very notion of tribalism.
In keeping with South Sudanese humanitarian Elijah Manyok Jok, the workforce has already made large inroads in fostering a way of unity throughout the nation.
“All people has been rallying behind this workforce,” Jok mentioned in an interview with Basketball Eternally. “Folks with tribal variations, folks with political variations, all coming collectively. A real nationwide workforce was our largest lacking hyperlink. In some way up to now, we’ve had a number of totally different soccer groups, every one aligned with explicit areas or tribes. And so the competitors between them was really reflecting the continued political and tribal variations on this nation. However when the basketball workforce got here in, it was an entire sport changer. This workforce is without doubt one of the few sources of nationwide identification we now have. They’ve actually planted the seed of social cohesion and concord into the neighborhood.”
In an effort to construct a aggressive squad, Luol Deng spent years recruiting the most effective gamers he might discover with South Sudanese heritage. However getting them right into a Brilliant Stars jersey wasn’t all the time easy. Delicate-spoken guard Sunday Dech, who was born in Ethiopia to South Sudanese dad and mom, needed to persuade FIBA to permit him to play for South Sudan after beforehand representing Australia, his dwelling since he was six years previous. Kuany Kuany’s Finnish membership threatened to let him go if he performed via harm to symbolize South Sudan on the 2023 World Cup qualifiers. He packed his luggage with out hesitation and subsequently had his contract torn up.
Different gamers, reminiscent of 27-year-old middle Deng Acuoth, had been sceptical about taking part in for South Sudan within the first place, having watched grainy YouTube movies of the workforce’s early video games in run-down gyms throughout Africa.
“Among the guys had been saying to me, ‘Yo, you need to come play.’ I used to be like, ‘I don’t know, is the subsequent match going to be performed someplace like that?’” Acuoth advised BF. “However then I bought a random name from an American quantity and it was Luol. I didn’t see that coming. You by no means anticipate somebody like that to name you out of the blue. However he advised me his imaginative and prescient, about how this was a lot larger than basketball, and that he needed me on the workforce. As soon as he mentioned that, I didn’t have a second thought.”
Finally, South Sudan’s roster was brimming with world-class gamers, all of whom had overcome unthinkable adversity to forge careers in basketball. Peter Jok, who starred on the College of Iowa, misplaced each his father and grandfather in civil wars. His household fled from South Sudan to Uganda when he was younger. Wenyen Gabriel, who has performed 150 video games within the NBA, was rushed from what’s now South Sudan to Egypt as a two-week-old child when his household fled the combating. Majok Deng, one of many workforce’s most proficient large males, left his childhood dwelling on the age of six with out telling anybody, embarking on a solo journey to comply with his brother to a refugee camp in Kenya. He stayed there for 4 years earlier than settling in Australia.
Past assembling the workforce’s proficient roster, certainly one of Luol Deng’s defining strikes was appointing Houston Rockets assistant Royal Ivey because the workforce’s head coach. Deng met Ivey in 1999 when he moved to the US on a basketball scholarship at New Jersey boarding college Blair Academy. He arrived at Blair with nothing to his identify and didn’t even personal a pair of basketball sneakers. Ivey, a 17-year-old postgraduate pupil on the time, lent Deng his personal sneakers they usually turned shut mates in a single day.
Whereas the Brilliant Stars’ function all the time went past basketball, the gamers knew that to realize the credibility and respect wanted to make an affect off the court docket, they needed to obtain one thing particular on it. This served as their best motivation for making a run at qualifying for the World Cup and the Olympics.
Nevertheless, that dream was shattered virtually instantly. South Sudan stumbled on the very first hurdle on the way in which to reaching the world stage, failing to progress previous the pre-qualifiers for the 2021 African championships, often called AfroBasket. The devastated gamers had been on the airport, able to fly dwelling, after they had been knowledgeable Algeria had withdrawn from the subsequent spherical of qualifying resulting from a Covid outbreak. South Sudan had been provided the prospect to take their place.
In consequence, as a substitute of jetting dwelling to their households, the gamers boarded a flight to Rwanda for the subsequent part of AfroBasket qualifiers, the place they did simply sufficient to make it via to the AfroBasket match itself. The Brilliant Stars misplaced within the quarterfinals, however by making it to AfroBasket within the first place, they earned a spot within the qualifiers for 2023 FIBA World Cup.
With a number of latest expertise on board, together with star ahead Nuni Omot and former Philadelphia 76er Marial Shayok, the Brilliant Stars had been prepared when the World Cup qualifiers arrived. Taking part in solely in opposition to different African groups, they dominated the competitors, ending 11-1 and securing the nation’s first World Cup look. South Sudan was the speak of the match, overwhelming their opponents with pace, athleticism, and three-point capturing. It was an uncommon taking part in model for an African workforce, most of which choose to sluggish the sport down and make each possession a bodily slog.
The Brilliant Stars led the qualifiers in scoring (78.6 factors per sport), area purpose capturing (44.6 %) and three-point capturing (37.6 %). Within the latter two classes, they had been gentle years forward of the competitors. The workforce’s gunslinging, high-octane method mirrored the model of play extra generally discovered within the Western nations the place its gamers grew up, reminiscent of Australia, Canada and the US.
“Quite a lot of the opposite African groups used to say, ‘This model received’t work right here, simply wait till you progress onto the subsequent stage,’” Kuany Kuany mentioned. “Even not too long ago, one of many Angola coaches was like, ‘Yeah, you guys have simply been fortunate.’ However we’ve been in a position to maintain it. It’s been working for us.”
Having confirmed themselves on their dwelling continent, the World Cup introduced the Brilliant Stars with an opportunity to point out they weren’t solely a drive in opposition to African opponents unaccustomed to their model of play. They stumbled out of the beginning blocks with early losses to Puerto Rico and Serbia. However they claimed thumping wins in opposition to China and the Philippines, earlier than fittingly ending their marketing campaign with a 101-78 victory over rivals Angola to safe simply certainly one of 12 Olympic spots because the top-performing African workforce on the match. South Sudan’s World Cup could have been over, however their Olympic dream had simply been realised. The win prompted emotional scenes on the court docket and within the stands, because the gravity of the second started to sink in.
“It was simply an outpouring of celebration and emotion after that sport,” Marial Shayok advised Basketball Eternally. “Guys are celebrating with the followers, signing one another’s jerseys. It was a brilliant cool second, man, we had been all simply misplaced in it.”
Place to begin guard Carlik Jones, who was distinctive with 26 factors and 15 assists within the win, was beaming with delight after the sport. “It means the world, it means the world to the folks again dwelling,” Jones mentioned.
Amid pure jubilation within the locker room postgame, Luol Deng yelled above the noise, “The place we going?” “Paris!” the gamers replied in unison, as the mantra repeated on a loop.
Deng fought again tears when he addressed the media following the sport.
“It’s an unbelievable story. It’s an underdog story that, not only for the South Sudanese, not only for Africa, however for the remainder of the world,” Deng mentioned. “It’s a feel-good story that almost all of individuals can relate to. It’s such a novel achievement as a result of it’s past basketball.”
In conversations with Basketball Eternally, lots of the gamers had been nonetheless processing the sheer scale of the workforce’s journey. Sunday Dech spoke to the surreal feeling of seeing the South Sudanese flag flying on the World Cup. Khaman Maluach, a 17-year-old Duke commit and projected top-three choose at subsequent yr’s NBA draft, mentioned his complete expertise with the nationwide workforce felt like one thing out of a film. Many gamers spoke of flying again to South Sudan with their teammates and being mobbed on the airport by 1000’s of followers.
The following step for the Brilliant Stars is the Olympics, the place they’ve been drawn in the identical pool as the US and Serbia. Regardless of the whole lot they’ve achieved, South Sudan will nonetheless be heavy underdogs. However that fits them simply high-quality. They’ve identified nothing else.
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