Luol Deng and Royal Ivey on Constructing South Sudan’s Basketball Crew

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South Sudan, the youngest nation on the earth, is, as I write this, the proud dwelling of a nationwide basketball crew hooping within the Paris Olympics, an outrageous accomplishment for a strife-ridden nation that has solely existed since 2011.

Even when this program was led by folks that nobody at SLAM had ever heard of, the accomplishment is so grand it warrants our consideration. Alas, it’s led by two of our favourite folks within the sport, gents who’ve been bringing smiles to us and all who love the sport for nearly so long as SLAM has been round: Luol Deng and Royal Ivey.

Deng, who most of you need to know from his longtime NBA profession, if not the various exceptional steps in his life path earlier than or since, is the crux of this story. I discovered about Luol round 2000, when his older brother, Ajou, was a extremely touted recruit at UConn and brokers began whispering a few youthful brother they known as “Louie” who can be even higher than Ajou. By late 2002, I used to be hanging out at Blair Academy for a function on then-Blair senior Luol and his teammate, Queens’ legend and future NBAer Charlie Villanueva. Luol was definitely one of the spectacular youngsters I’ve ever spoken to (as if writing about excessive schoolers for SLAM wasn’t sufficient publicity, now I’ve a teen of my very own), and he got here with a wide ranging backstory. 

Born within the southern a part of Sudan when it was nonetheless one nation within the throes of a civil battle, Luol and his mom and siblings fled the nation for a safer life in Egypt in 1990, and in ’94, they reunited along with his politician father, Aldo, in London. Luol spent some early life within the South London neighborhood of Brixton, choosing up a correct love for Arsenal and soccer but additionally hooping on a regular basis. And rising. Luol adopted Ajou’s footsteps in coming to America for prep faculty, which is how we discovered him at Blair. And he wasn’t only a good child taking part in some ball whereas getting a high quality training to set himself up for a university scholarship; he was the second-best participant in his highschool class. Actually, just about each 2003 highschool rating system or all-star recreation had a No. 1 and No. 2 participant. Luol was No. 2. No. 1 was LeBron James.

Deng went to Duke for one season, main the Blue Devils to the Last 4 (the place they misplaced by 1 level to Villanueva’s UConn crew, mockingly). Deng was the seventh choose within the ’04 Draft and started a 10-year stint with the Bulls that featured two All-Star appearances, two seasons main the NBA in minutes per recreation and a ton of playoff video games. This was principally the Thibs-Derrick Rose Bulls, and Deng was the engine that made them go. He performed 5 extra seasons after Chicago to offer himself a tidy 15-year profession through which he was completely beloved by his coaches and teammates and at all times a pleasure to speak with in locker rooms (particularly if I led with Arsenal check-ins). 

Deng was not glad simply being a star on the court docket, although. Off it, he created the Luol Deng Basis and was repeatedly going again to London and Africa to participate in numerous charitable efforts and basketball occasions designed to develop the sport. In 2021, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, which is a type of very British issues that, not less than in Nice Britain, implies that he must be offered as Luol Deng OBE; changing into “Sir Luol Deng” may occur sooner or later. On the identical time that he was making his mark with charitable work in his adopted dwelling of England, Deng was reigniting his relationship along with his actual dwelling of South Sudan. He’d been named President of the South Sudan Basketball Federation in 2019 and started spending extra time there. “Think about your loved ones fleeing a rustic and going to search out life someplace else,” Deng says in a mini-doc concerning the crew qualifying for the Olympics that was shared with SLAM. “And as an alternative of you being in that different nation and forgetting about South Sudan and having fun with your skilled basketball profession, you’re truly committing to come back again and play for that very same nation that you simply fled due to the battle, and also you’re the one now bringing all this positivity to it.”

Superbly stated, Luol. Unsurprisingly for a rustic of lower than 13 million that has been round solely 13 years—and suffered by way of inside preventing and improvement challenges the entire time—constructing a basketball program was not a precedence. However there’s a heritage of the game there and within the individuals who come from there, starting with famed NBA shot blocker Manute Bol (who initially impressed Deng and his brothers) and persevering with with Deng, former Syracuse star Kueth Duany, Manute’s son (and SLAM fave) Bol Bol and heading into the longer term with younger stars like Khaman Maluach, a 17-year-old incoming freshman at Duke who’s projected to be a top-five choose within the 2025 NBA Draft.

Since his appointment as president of the SSBF, Deng has instilled construction across the crew and sought to get the very best gamers from the South Sudanese diaspora suiting up for the nation of their roots. Issues coalesced final summer season when South Sudan, taking part in in its first-ever FIBA World Cup, earned an Olympic berth by ending because the highest-ranked crew from Africa.  

If Deng has been the SSBF’s Jerry West—the retired legend now constructing a roster with guile and conviction—Royal Ivey has been their Pat Riley, a retired position participant turned motivational grasp as head coach.

Ivey, at present an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets, has been on my radar since 1999, when he led what was as soon as unquestionably the #SLAMfam’s favourite highschool, Queens’ (NY) Cardozo (shout out Ronnie Z and Coach Naclerio!), to an NYC PSAL title, incomes MVP honors in a 57-47 win at Madison Sq. Backyard that gave Naclerio, now the winningest coach in New York State public faculty historical past, his very first title. 

After graduating from Cardozo with that ’99 title on his CV, Ivey spent a post-grad 12 months at Blair the place he performed alongside…a younger Luol Deng. “Luol has been like my little brother since I met him his freshman 12 months at Blair,” says Ivey over Zoom from Kigali, Rwanda, the place the South Sudan crew is holding pre-Olympic coaching camp. “I used to be older and I wished to guard him, however he was additionally motivation to me. I used to be 17 years previous and he was 13, waking me up at 6 a.m. to get within the gymnasium. Then we had been in the identical draft class and we’d hand around in Chicago and keep in contact. Afterward, I labored his camps in London.”

Ivey was a 6-3 2-guard who couldn’t shoot all that properly, however he at all times performed arduous—particularly on protection—and he was an important teammate. He performed 4 years on the College of Texas, reaching the ’03 Last 4 and making such a mark along with his intangibles that he was the thirty seventh choose within the ’04 NBA Draft regardless of four-year school averages of 8 factors, 3 rebounds and a pair of assists per recreation.

Ivey’s numbers had been even decrease within the execs, however he lasted a decade within the League after which, after his remaining stint with the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in 2014, OKC GM Sam Presti requested if Ivey would function an assistant with their G League crew, the Blue. Ivey’s been on the teaching grind ever since. 

“The best way I obtained this job was loopy,” Ivey shares at present. “I used to be watching Luol coach [South Sudan] on Instagram. I’m teaching in New York. [Then-Knicks head coach David] Fizdale will get fired. I used to be searching for a brand new alternative and I used to be intrigued about serving to Luol transfer ahead. I informed him I’d like to be a part of the employees. You don’t must be an element, Luol informed me. I would like you to run this factor.”

And with that, the 2—pals by way of two wild a long time within the enterprise of basketball—had been off and working, popping out of the pandemic with a quick taking part in type and the buy-in of an increasing number of good gamers. South Sudan has loads of work to do as a nation, however when the basketball crew, nicknamed the Vibrant Stars, performs and wins, there’s a nationwide delight that isn’t sometimes on show. “We’re right here to place South Sudan on the map,” Ivey says. “We’re right here to heal. To convey a rustic collectively by way of sports activities is one thing life-changing. I’ve been there and touched the bottom and touched the folks.”

Provides Deng within the mini-doc: “I would like these guys to appreciate what sports activities does for the nation. Sports activities is gonna be the car of unity.”

Clearly, there’s a full-length film to be made right here. I do know I’ll watch it.

Photographs by way of Getty Photographs.