Villeneuve-d’Ascq (France) (AFP) – Olympic organisers might have played the wrong national anthem before South Sudan’s opening basketball game at the Paris Games, but the star-studded US team know for certain what they are up against next. America’s men have never lost to an African side at the Olympics, but they had a scare when they played South Sudan in a warm-up game in London on July 20. US-born JT Thor, who plays for Charlotte in the NBA, hit a three-pointer with 20 seconds left to put South Sudan ahead, only for LeBron James to snatch a 101-100 win.
Wenyen Gabriel, a centre who was born in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and played eight seasons in the NBA — including a stint as a team-mate of James with the Los Angeles Lakers — said South Sudan could take positives from their defeat. “A lot of people doubted us, and going toe-to-toe with the US, it brought our team together, it brought our country together,” he said. South Sudan won their first-ever Olympic basketball match 90-79 against Puerto Rico on Sunday while four-time defending champions the United States crushed Serbia 110-84.
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New York-born coach Royal Ivey warned they would be facing a different United States on Wednesday. “That was a friendly,” Ivey said, referring to the London contest. “They’re gonna be ready for us.” “This is a movie,” he added. “This is so surreal. I couldn’t experience anything better than this.” Ivey played 11 seasons in the NBA and was a teammate of American forward Kevin Durant at Oklahoma City. “That’s definitely my little brother. I’ve known Kevin since he was 18 years old,” said Ivey.
After the Bright Stars beat Angola to qualify for Paris, Luol Deng, the former NBA star who is president of South Sudan’s basketball federation, told American broadcaster NBC that if there was an indoor court in the country he was not aware of it. “It’s a new beginning for all of us,” said small forward Bul Kuol, who fled Sudan aged nine, spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya, and plays professionally in Australia. “The next generation now has a platform to grow on. And this is it right here.”
“No matter what tribe you’re from or what you’re facing — adversity, the war, or whatever — I think this has united us. It’s like every single tribe, every single town.” He said the team’s approach was simple. “We gotta win, we gotta win.” South Sudan became an independent nation after it broke free from Sudan in 2011 but has lurched from crisis to crisis, enduring persistent armed violence, extreme hunger, and natural disasters.
“It’s been a tough journey for me personally and for every single one of us. We all got a big story,” said forward Majok Deng, a refugee at the age of eight. “Right now is the happiest time in our country since we got independence. It hasn’t always been a positive narrative coming out of our country. We’re a new country, we’re a new team, and just to paint this new narrative.” He said South Sudan relished the support they received from the largely French crowd during their opener. “Wherever we go, they were cheering for us, and they show up tonight (Sunday) again at the game. We appreciate every single fan in the world that is rooting for us.”
© 2024 AFP
