The South Sudan Men’s Basketball story is incredible. The youngest country in the world (established 2011) with a GDP of under $10B. Former NBA player Luol Deng funded the country’s basketball program (travel, hotels, gyms) for years on his own and believes South Sudan can become a basketball powerhouse the same way “Kenya dominates in track and field” or “Jamaica does in sprinting”. During his NBA career (2004-2019), Deng regularly ran basketball camps in the UK (where his family received political asylum after escaping Sudanese Civil War) and Africa. A huge motivation for him to pursue basketball was that “everything said about Sudan / South Sudan was always negative” and he “wanted to succeed” as a way to put his “country on the map.” Deng became president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation in 2019 and what they’ve been able to do in a few short years is amazing. *** Full interview here from 2023: youtu.be/IH-IYYVsa2I?si=2CtU…