Last night, the 2023 World Cup group was officially announced. China men’s basketball was in Group B with Serbia, Puerto Rico and South Sudan!

Former Lakers player Rolle Deng is the chairman and head coach of South Sudan’s Basketball Association. Let’s see his story ~

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South Sudan became independent from Sudan only in 2011. Before that, there was only one competition experience: the African Cup in 2021, when they stumbled into the top eight after their opponents abandoned and the Jedi turned over, then he was defeated by Tunisia like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves.

But this time, South Sudan’s performance was impressive: in the two rounds of qualifiers, South Sudan not only killed Tunisia and squeezed the other side out of the game, but also defeated the traditional African teams such as Senegal, Egypt and Cameroon all the way, in the end, Hao won 11 in 12 battles and advanced to the World Cup with the best result in Africa.

This is a team that you can’t name the players (except for achur who once played for Tongxi in Nanjing-he actually only played 3 games), twenty-one players with an appearance record were born in 8 different countries and regions. Some of them were named wang and some were named deng, most of whom played in league matches outside africa.

However, it was their 37-year-old coach Rolle Deng who combined this coalition force purely connected by lineage. He also had another identity: Chairman of South Sudan Basketball Association.

The name of Lo-Deng has also appeared in the reports of the management of the Lakers in recent years. He signed with the Lakers for 4 years and 72 million years in the summer of 2016, after playing 56 games in the first year, Luo Deng was quickly abandoned by the team, so he played one game in the second season of the Lakers for 13 minutes.

In 2018, Loro Deng negotiated with the Lakers to buy out the contract, took 7.5 million less in return for freedom, and then went to the Timberwolves to go to sibodu, Rose and Jimmy Butler. After the end of this season, luo-Deng returned to the bull and signed a one-day contract to retire as a Bull player.

After the Lakers laid off Deng with extended terms, they still paid his salary until last season.

There were not many bright spots at the end of his career. As a player with a total score of more than 10000 points in his career for more than 15 years, the retirement of Luo-Deng can even be said to be hasty and scrawled (even known as salary swindlers). But in fact, Deng had already planned for the next step. Just after his retirement, he applied to South Sudan Basketball Association and nominated himself as chairman of South Sudan Basketball Association.

Most fans know that the nationality of lore Deng is Britain, and he also participated in the 2012 London Olympic Games. But few people know that he retained the nationality of Sudan when he was naturalized in England in 2006. From an early age, he had a wish to use his own ability to help his hometown revive when he grew up.

Loro-Deng was born in Wawa, South Sudan. His father was a member of parliament of Sudan at that time. In order to avoid the second civil war in Sudan, Deng’s family moved to Egypt. In Egypt, they met the former NBA center Manut-Bohr. Bohr, who was 2 meters tall, was also from South Sudan. After retirement, they had been running for assistance to refugees from Sudan’s civil war. The basketball enlightenment of Luo Deng and his brother Ayu Deng came from this NBA star. After five years of political asylum, the lore-Deng family immigrated to London and settled down here.

After that, the story went very smoothly. Luo Deng was outstanding in England. He moved to the United States at the age of 14, then went to Duke University. He ran in 2004 and was sent to the bull after being selected by the sun in the seventh place, then he played in NBA for 15 seasons, among which he played in Bull for 10 years and was selected as an all-star twice.

According to Reason, Loro Deng, who has always had no worries about food and clothing and earned 0.17 billion dollars in his career, has not had much intersection with his poor motherland South Sudan, but on the contrary, deng always kept in mind what his father and Bohr taught him and devoted the rest of his life to the basketball career of the motherland.

“My basketball career is so smooth, but this is definitely not the norm. I know that thousands of children do not have enough ascending channels and even have a basketball field, A coach who can guide them to play ball is extravagant.”

“South Sudan will always linger in my mind and never forget.”

Deng and Manute-Bohr

At the beginning of taking office, the heroic words shouted by Luo Deng were “to make South Sudan a future international basketball power”. This sentence really inspired a lot of young people, but the actual operation is much more difficult than imagined.

Different from people’s imagination, although south sudan has many talented seedlings (dinka, the main ethnic group in south sudan, is 1.82 meters tall on average and has extremely slender limbs), but they had never thought of serving their country before. The South Sudan Basketball Association was established in 2011 (at that time, South Sudan had just established an independent state, and China established diplomatic relations with South Sudan in 2011). Because the domestic economy was really bad, government funding did not exist at all, therefore, it was even difficult for South Sudan to form a national team before Luo Deng paid for it.

What’s more, because there is no qualified basketball court in South Sudan, no matter what game you play, the team will play away. It is difficult to guarantee the safety without paying for the traveling expenses, therefore, in the early stage when luo deng took charge of the south sudan basketball association, the team couldn’t find a coach willing to coach, so luo deng decided to come by himself. In the 2021 african cup qualifier, he picked up pointer, while studying tactics, he tried every means to recruit players to join.

As a result, a basketball chain connecting blood, love, the simplest local feelings and the heart of the child unfolded:

The 28-year-old captain guani Quani left his hometown at the age of 9 and grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He had been playing in NBL before; his love for his motherland and his worship for Lo-Deng made him the first player to join this team. Then, cuaney recruited Jackson macooy, a point guard born in Egypt in 2000 and grew up in Australia. Then, the team’s number one scorer broke up with Nuni Omot, born in Kenya refugee camp in 1994, he grew up in a slum on the border of Ethiopia. Later, he immigrated to Minnesota, USA. He graduated from Baylor University and now he is working for the Magic team of the Development Alliance.

“We never lack talented players and they never lack love for our motherland,” Deng said. “What we are doing is to unite them.”

This is exactly the most difficult thing.

Before the independence of South Sudan, there were wars in Sudan, conflicts between ethnic groups and bloody battles. Therefore, many players were born and raised abroad and have never been to South Sudan. Some have left since childhood and never been back. Some young people have never seen them since they separated from their parents for political reasons.

Luo-Deng decided to make this happen. He led the team back to China by charter in 2022 and saw an unprecedented scene on the apron.

Hundreds of people held slogans, sang their names and waved national flags.

“It’s incredible,” Deng’s best friend, his assistant professor Rakai said, “this basketball team has unified the whole country and stopped conflicts and arguments, no matter which group you come from, what dialect do we speak? We got together with our motherland because of basketball.”

On that day, a player saw his mother who had been separated for many years for the first time, and they cried excitedly.

In 2021, South Sudan, who was in the African Cup for the first time, entered the top eight African countries and took a solid first step. The next goal of Luo Deng is to enter the men’s basketball World Cup.

His players have begun to get used to winning-lore Deng invited former NBA players, and Royle Ivey, who has rich NBA teaching assistant experience after retirement, served as the head coach of the team. In 2022, they beat the turks twice and firmly ranked first in the group. At this time, people began to realize that this team could really reach the world cup.

Ivy, who once worked for eagle, Thunder, 76 people, and stag, is now one of the teaching assistants in basketable nets.

Omot was asked, “What do you think is the limit of South Sudan?” He replied with a smile, “there is no limit. Our limit is XINGX and the moon.”

This team is still growing, and the other two defenders Dech and kuorr who grew up in Australia also joined in. In the final stage of the qualifier, Ivey was hired by basketable nets and could not be separated, lo-Deng sat on the bench again and commanded the game.

“I tell them that you are fighting for our national flag and thousands of people behind us,” Deng said, “you must let the world know our country, you are the heroes of the country.”

So they really did it. They won 9 games in the first 10 games and won the World Cup for the first time in Africa.

Only on that day, when a large number of South Sudan fans who traveled to Egypt and prepared to witness the history stood outside the stadium, they were not allowed to enter for “security reasons” by the players.

“I think both FIBA and Egyptian basketball association should be ashamed of this. It is a shame for the International Basketball Association and the African Basketball Association. Our fans are standing outside the door, they have fans from South Sudan, other fans from Africa, fans from America, and we are deprived of the right to celebrate with fans from afar. I am disappointed that we have made history, but our fans cannot accompany us to make history, and the FIBA needs to be responsible for it.”

Padai-Wang (padiet-wang), No. 10, South Sudan, was born in Lebanon. The source of his surname is still unclear.

Luo-Deng knew that everything still had a long way to go.

He paid his own money to build a training ground, and South Sudan will have its own basketball court in the future, so he doesn’t have to continue playing home games in neutral ground. He used his own network to fund 130 players to go to the United States before and after, these children all got scholarships. In addition, Deng also set up a training camp called Deng Top 50 for south sudan refugee children in the united states, inviting 2000-3,000 children to receive training every year. His own foundation holds the “medical treatment without borders” activity every year, inviting doctors from South Sudan in Europe to return to domestic villages and perform more than 500 operations for free, “If we can, I hope to do more for them.”

In the words of the players, Luo Deng is not like a strict coach, but more like a kind Big Brother, “sometimes we forget that he is a world-famous super star, until we finished the match with Kenya that day, the other player came to take a photo with him,” guani-guani said, “We learned a lot imperceptibly on him, he is very kind to us, but he will tell us that we must do our best.”

Captain khoniguani, who played in Australia and Croatia before, now plays for the Finnish league

Now, Luo Deng and his players have fulfilled their previous heroic promises. They have won the tickets for the World Cup. His next goal is to recruit more powerful players to join, these people all have the nationality of South Sudan: Wen Yan-Gabriel of the Lakers, JT-sol of the Hornets, and Deng’s mentor, son of the late star Manut-Bohr, magic center Bohr.

Their next goal is to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“This is our life. Life will not be smooth. We have experienced many setbacks and hardships since we were young, but basketball gives us the opportunity to overcome everything and reach the eyes of the world, it proves that we can also do it,” guani-guani said. “Now, the opportunity is coming. Playing basketball is one of the few things that can be won by skill.”

In the view of Luo Deng, everything has just begun.

“In 2012, I was invited to be the unofficial spokesman of the Olympic Games. Our coaches are Chris Finch and Nick naus. I am honored to represent Britain and demonstrate our ability. But I was thinking at that time, could I do the same thing for South Sudan one day?”

“I only know basketball. Basketball is what I have been doing all the time. I have learned from many people. Skiles, siberdu and every coach I met before, I didn’t do anything, just copy their tactics as they were and let the players run.”

“I also want to do more things to make South Sudan have national teams at all levels. I am in charge of men’s and women’s teams to inspect boys and girls under the age of 18,” Deng said, “But the coach is not easy to find, and we don’t have enough sieving machine to find players.”

It is the first step to enter the World Cup. His goal is to let the national flag of South Sudan fly over the arena of world competitions.

“I also want to tell every child that your future is bright. Sports can really give you a platform to change your life. You can find a job and support your family by sports, you can also receive education for this. I want to tell our young people that your goal is not just to be a professional athlete, but to seize the opportunity in front of you and show yourself as much as possible. Work hard and you will get what you want.”

“For all the compatriots behind us, come on.”

This dream journey has just started from now on.

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(Article/article Ruo, the article was first published on March 11)