The new kids on the block gave the mighty United States men’s basketball team one heck of a scare. South Sudan, which gained its independence in 2011, nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever witnessed on the sport’s international stage. It took a LeBron James layup with eight seconds remaining on Saturday for Team USA to avoid an epoch-defining loss.
The Americans trailed by 16 points before halftime, but squeaked out a 101-100 win in a pre-Olympic tune-up at 02 Arena in London. Despite falling one basket short, South Sudan was still the story. A team with no NBA players (though several have played at least few games in the league) led for most of the night against a collection of talent not seen since the 1992 Dream Team.
South Sudan’s leading scorer was born and raised in Ottawa: Marial Shayok scored a team-high 24 points, including 6-for-12 shooting on three-pointers. Shayok finished high school at a prep school in New Jersey and went on to play for Virginia and Iowa State in the NCAA, before spending four games in the NBA with Philadelphia. He has held more prominent roles in the NBA G League and overseas.
Wenyen Gabriel, JT Thor and Carlik Jones have all spent time in the NBA. Thon Maker, taken by the Milwaukee Bucks with 10th pick of the 2016 NBA draft, is attempting to play for South Sudan after previously playing for Australia. (Maker played high school basketball at Athlete Institute, in Orangeville, Ont.
, with future NBA star Jamal Murray.) Bol Bol, son of the legendary Manute Bol, was reportedly part of the team’s initial 25-man roster, but is not playing. Khaman Maluach is the program’s shining light.
The 17-year-old, who is already 7-foot-2, is set to play at Duke this year and will likely become a high NBA draft pick. Luol Deng, the former NBA all-star, leads the program and runs camps in Uganda, where South Sudanese such as Maluach were forced to flee to with their families during the long civil war. South Sudan is coached by 11-year NBA veteran Royal Ivey, with help from Deng and Fortune Solomon.
“The game is worldwide,” said James, as quoted by The Associated Press. “There’s not one place that you don’t see the game being played. I think that’s the beauty of it.
The game of basketball brings together so many people.” South Sudan is the lowest-ranked team (33rd) amongst the 16 competing in men’s basketball in France this summer. The team qualified by being the best African finisher at last year’s FIBA World Cup.
Awaiting FIBA’s final decision Monday, fingers crossed my appeal to get cleared for me to play with South Sudan. Would be a dream come true.🙏🏿❤️ 🇸🇸 #SSD #Olympics South Sudan and the U.
S. will meet again in Paris on July 31. Other opponents in the tough group include World Cup silver medalist Serbia and Puerto Rico, fresh off a July 7 win over Lithuania at a last-chance qualifying tournament.
No African team has finished higher than ninth (Egypt, 1952) at an Olympics. Nigeria finished 10th in 2020 and 2012..
