SOUTH Sudan coach Royal Ivey fondly remembered how their men’s basketball team prepared in the most unusual circumstance a year before their campaign in the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup.
“A year ago, we were playing outdoor practicing outside with eagles flying around,” Ivey recalled. “And the courts were flooded. To go from there and come in and play in front of these fans in the Philippines, I’m on cloud nine. It’s a great feeling.”
South Sudan made history in Manila, when they clinched a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics via the World Cup, just 12 years after obtaining independence. It was a big celebration for South Sudanese back home in a country still experiencing conflict and violence between government forces even after independence.
“It is a big thing for us. It’s going crazy,” said South Sudan reporter Night Taban, controlling her emotions when interviewed by reporters after the historic win. “The World Cup is already a big thing for us. It’s history. And now, Olympics, it’s too much emotions right now for us as South Sudan. I feel like the world always look down on us or in a different, negative way. This is our time to shine now. It’s our time for world to know who we really are. We have a lot of potential and we can make it to world stages.”
READ: South Sudan rise among most memorable moments in 2023 World Cup
The man widely recognized as responsible for South Sudan’s rise in its basketball federation president Luol Deng, a former NBA player who once represented Great Britain in the Olympics but kept his South Sudanese lineage in his heart.
But the seeds to South Sudan’s success didn’t happened overnight.
Deng said he never missed doing summer camps during his playing career and even beyond, and saw that there is potential for South Sudan to be a competitive in basketball.
“I’ve been organizing basketball camps since I got into the NBA,” said Deng, drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 2014. “Ever since, I did camps in London, I did camps in Australia, in the US and in Africa. I never skipped summer without having a camp and talk a little bit until COVID. I’ve been to multiple places while doing that.”
“I did a lot of camps for South Sudanese kids in the diaspora. So for me, I kinda knew before I even retired that there’s a lot of South Sudanese kids that just like myself represented other countries or they are not considered good enough to represent that country. For me, even throughout my career, even though I represented Great Britain and I’m thankful for that, at that time, we didn’t have a country. I represented Great Britain and I did everything I can to build that basketball program,” said Deng.

When he retired from basketball and became an administrator, Deng said it became a lot easier to search talent with the database of players that they were able to build over the years. Ivey, a close friend of Deng dating back to their high school days in 1999 at Blair Academy in United Kingdom, was also brought in 2021.
Most of the players that Deng handled and were in the database were able to see action during the qualifying windows for the World Cup that led to an 11-1 record.
“A lot of players that played for us where in my camps since they were young. So I’ve been involved with the community and involved in the diaspora. To be able to come together, I had a team with me that was familiar with how want to do it and what we need to do,” said Deng.
After that impressive run in the qualifiers, South Sudan made noise early in the World Cup when it nearly defeated Puerto Rico, 101-96, in overtime during their first game of the group stage. It only took time for South Sudan to capture that first win when they trounced China, 89-69. Serbia ousted South Sudan from a place in the second round with a 115-83 decision but it’s Olympic dream was still alive in the classification round.
The African country routed Gilas Pilipinas, 87-68, to start the second round, and was one win away from an Olympic spot. Behind the cheers of South Sudanese back home watching on television and even on big screens including one at a stadium, the country clinched the Olympic berth with a 101-78 win over Angola last September 2.
“It’s a special day,” said Deng. “It’s something that I knew that it was possible for us to do but I knew it will take a lot of work.”
“This team is a beam of light,” said Ivey. “I keep on saying every postgame, bringing unity and camaraderie, and friendship to the country. What we did, this country has only been independent for 12 years, to do this for Luol Deng who put this together, it’s incredible. I take my hat off to the players. They trusted us from Day One.”
South Sudan journalist Denis Lejugbo hopes that the win would spark change in the country.
“South Sudan has gone through a lot,” said Lejugbo. “We’ve had wars, we’ve had division. But this is an opportunity for South Sudan to unite right now through our basketball team. Our basketball team is made up of people from different tribes. South Sudan is made of 64 tribes. Now, we have a tool that we can use to rally all South Sudanese. United we stand, divided we fall.”
“We can do a lot more if we are united as a country. We can develop our economy. We can develop as people. We can grow to a place we are representing South Sudan at a world stage. And now, we are heading to the Olympics. I still can’t believe it,” said
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