‘I realized that this was bigger than basketball’: Former NBA All-Star Luol Deng on the rise of South Sudan’s basketball team

Former NBA All-Star Luol Deng talks to CNN Sport in Paris on the rapid rise of South Sudan’s basketball team as it looks to shock the world at the Olympic Games.

It was a dream debut on the Olympic basketball stage for the world’s youngest country. South Sudan’s men’s basketball team defeated Puerto Rico 90-79 in Paris on Sunday in its first ever appearance at the Games, but the result meant more than just picking up two points in Group C. For South Sudan Basketball Federation President Luol Deng, it was the culmination of everything that he and the team had worked so hard to achieve. “When the national anthem was sung, you know, it just gave me goosebumps, and I realized that this was bigger than basketball,” Deng told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies. “And you know that the support is going to be there. “This is really a credit to our fans who supported us from day one. And now, we have such a huge following and huge (fanbase) that we really believe that it’s so inspiring because of the fans. The energy and everything that they’re bringing is inspiring everybody else to pay attention to it.” Deng is a former two-time NBA All-Star and spent 15 years in the league with the likes of the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers. He was born in Wau, in what is now South Sudan, before the country’s independence. His family was displaced due to the Second Sudanese Civil War, moving to Egypt when Deng was a child before the family was granted political asylum in the UK, arriving in London, England. He moved to the US at 14 to pursue a basketball career, going on to play college hoops at Duke before being drafted seventh overall by Chicago in 2004. He represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics in London.