South Sudan has only been a country for 12 years, but its basketball team - with five Australians on the roster - has just qualified for next year’s Olympics in Paris.
For South Sudan men’s basketball team, the road to the FIBA World Cup started on a concrete court.
But Saturday’s 101-78 win over Angola at the World Cup game guaranteed South Sudan its spot at Paris 2024 as the highest-placed African team. Retired NBA All-Star, now South Sudan Basketball Federation president, Luol Deng was the mastermind of an astute recruiting drive that helped South Sudan realise its dream of qualifying for the Olympics.during his career, often meeting with South Sudanese expatriate communities and hosting clinics for young people.
Those players regularly flew from their NBL teams in the past two years to play in African qualifying games. South Sudan’s lack of a stadium meant it had to play all those games as away fixtures, but it built an imposing record of 11 wins and one loss to earn its World Cup berth.
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