Winner of Puerto Rico on the first day, the beautiful story of South Sudan continues, and this Wednesday, at 9:00 p.m., the players of Royal Ivey will once again challenge the United States. Very close to the feat in a preparation match, with a defeat of a small point, the team dear to Luol Deng discovers the Olympic Games, only 13 years after the birth of the country! A lightning rise that forces admiration.
“It is an incredible achievement, considering the conflicts that have been rocking this region for so long,” recalls Steve Kerr, whose father was a diplomat in the Middle East. “So many refugees have come to the United States and other countries over the past few decades, to rebuild their lives. And to build a basketball federation in the midst of war and hardship…”
With Luol Deng as architect, South Sudan laid the foundations of its basketball, and Wenyen Gabriel's teammates only needed one World Cup to become the best African nation.
The symbol of the growth of African basketball
“Royal Ivey and his staff have put together a very good team that plays modern basketball, with spacing, 3-point shooting, aggression… It's quite spectacular and remarkable given that this region of the world has probably been the country where basketball has developed the slowest. Simply because basketball arrived there after South America or Europe.”
After the big scare in London, the Americans have been warned, and Steve Kerr does not forget that Team USA has already been beaten by an African team. “Nigeria beat Team USA in 2021 (in a warm-up match), and South Sudan played such a game against us the other day… You see the growth of the game in Africa, but especially in South Sudan, and with everything that's happened there, it's just a remarkable story.”
