CHICAGO (USA) - Luol Deng never grows tired of flying the flag for South Sudan, the country he has helped rise to prominence the past several years.
Having declared independence from Sudan in 2011, the country's basketball team, the Bright Stars, has quickly established itself as a force in the international game.
It has not just played at the AfroBasket, doing so for the first time in 2021,
It has also competed at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2024 Olympics.
Deng has helped every step of the way, be it with his money, or his time as a coach or as the president of the country's basketball federation.
The sheer presence of Deng at practices creates a positive buzz within the team.
The rise of the national team has been so quick that South Sudan could, many believe, become No. 1 in Africa.
Speaking on the Knuckleheads podcast, Deng marveled himself at how well things have gone for the national team, and how important the Bright Stars' rise has been for his country.
"Finally we have our own country and we can showcase what we can do and who we are as humans that for the majority of our life, since the existence of Sudan, we haven't really been given that opportunity to show the world what South Sudan really is," he said.
The fast rise has been stunning.
"It just went from not being ranked in Africa to all of a sudden playing at AfroBasket and getting out of there, and all of a sudden making it to the World Cup," he said.
"You go to the World Cup and all of a sudden, you're making it to the Olympics. All of a sudden you're playing the US in an exhibition game (in London) ... the way it worked out, the way the game went, to lose (the exhibition) by one and then to be in the same group (as the USA at the Olympics), we got so much coverage, that it changed the whole narrative."
Indeed. Everyone is talking now about how South Sudan are going places.
Not just in basketball, but as country. Imagine this success despite the lack of an indoor court in the country.
One will be opened very soon.
The Bright Stars are inspirational. They are a huge source of pride for the young nation.
"A lot of people didn't even know South Sudan is a country," Deng said.
"They just thought it was the south of Sudan. Now we're able to actually walk around, raise our flag and people are like, 'Yo, ya'll are good at basketball.'"
Instead of the South Sudan subject being about civil war and refugees, observers are remarking how the basketball team is a growing force.
"This is finally for the first time ever that someone says you're actually doing something right and that makes us happy and that's part of changing the narrative," Deng said.
The world could see that something special was in the works when, at the 2023 World Cup, South Sudan punched their ticket to the Olympics in France with a win over Angola.
While the Bright Stars, whose head coach at AfroBasket 2021, the World Cup and the Olympics was former NBA guard Royal Ivey, did not reach the Quarter-Finals at the Summer Games in France, the team did beat Puerto Rico for their first Olympic win.
All eyes will be on South Sudan in the tournaments to come.
Deng represented another country in international basketball. He played for Great Britain.
"I always wanted to be an Olympian and at the time, I couldn't really represent Sudan," he said.
Deng's family had fled the civil war in Sudan and first lived in Egypt before later moving to the United Kingdom.
"We (Sudan) were one country but we were going through a civil war. The same war, the same regime that made me flee my country because of their own beliefs and how they wanted to separate the country... I remember saying I didn't want to represent Sudan.
"I was in England and I went to the national team and said, 'Look, I was taken in by this country. You gave me an opportunity.'
"The best thing that I could do was work as hard as I can and play here every summer and try to really take basketball to a different level in this country. And every summer that I was in the league, I would go back and play for the English (Great Britain) national team until we made it to the Olympics."
It turned out to be an amazing experience. The coach of that Great Britain team was Chris Finch, who has since become head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Deng also played under GB assistant Nick Nurse, who several years later coached the Toronto Raptors to the NBA title.
It was not straightforward path for Deng and Great Britain to compete at the Olympics as the host nation. The country had to win promotion from the old EuroBasket Division B to Division A to show they merited a spot in the Olympic tournament.
The Brits not only won promotion but played at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland and EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania, with Deng leading the way.
When the Summer Games were staged in London in 2012, Deng and the Brits were among the 12 teams.
"I gave something back to a country that gave me an opportunity," Deng said. "That's really how I felt about it. One, I didn't want to represent Sudan because of what was going on. Two, I wanted to be an Olympian and three, I just wanted to give back to them."
Deng, who launched his NBA career in 2004 with the Chicago Bulls, finished after the 2018-19 campaign with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
That's when he dived head first into South Sudan basketball.
"When I retired, I looked at basketball as an opportunity to keep driving that force (in South Sudan) and keep motivating the youth to be proud of who we are and also for us to show the rest of the world that we finally arrived," he said. "So all that stuff is really a part of why I took this direction with the national team."
FIBA