The South Sudan men's basketball team is rising, as we know from last month's one-point exhibition loss to Team USA (101-100). The near upset positioned the up-and-coming squad for a much-anticipated rematch on Wednesday, where Team USA won in a 103-86 blowout win.
Still, one South Sudan player isn't discouraged about his team‘s ascension. Nuni Omot scored a team-high 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 3-for-5 from deep, in South Sudan's group-round loss to the USA and opened up about the program's growth thus far.
“They're gonna know who South Sudan is,” Omot said, per The Athletic. “We're gonna be a powerhouse.”
Omot believes the 2024 Olympics in Paris is just the beginning.
“People didn't know about South Sudan,” Omot said. “There's a lot of jokes in the media, a lot of people saying certain things about South Sudan. But I feel like now people know who we are. We're on the map now. I think it's just going to be an honor for our people in the future to show that we're here.”
Luol Deng's commitment to South Sudan
Luol Deng played 14 seasons in the NBA. He was named to two All-Star teams while spending ten years with the Chicago Bulls before retiring in 2019. However, he vowed to put South Sudan on the map after his playing days.
For Deng, it's not just from the standpoint of a talented national basketball team but also to educate the world about his country. From being involved with numerous charity projects to building a basketball court equipped with staff to teach people how to play basketball, Deng enjoys the fruits of his labor, as his country has garnered plenty of attention from its Olympic competition.
“I think in the next 10 years, it's going to jump up extremely,” Deng said in a phone interview from Kenya in 2021. “But in the future, the next 10 years, or 20 years from now, 30 years from now, it'll be a country that's out there, and people will talk about it… it's a very, very rich country, and it will be for a long time.
South Sudan made significant strides on and off the floor amidst the 2024 Olympic games.
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