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The latest war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has produced one of the largest displacement crises in the world. Some projections have more than eight million displaced Sudanese, mostly from South Sudan and including those displaced within the country. Another generation is being affected by war and will too know the longings of home. That’s why they didn’t lose on this night against USA. Because South Sudanese people across the world got to see their flag, their people, their likeness on a pedestal with legends. Omot was born in a refugee camp in Kenya in 1994, and he was the lucky one. His parents and older siblings trekked from Ethiopia and were arrested. The United Nations helped get them freed and settled into the Kenyan refugee camp, where Omot was born. He was two when the family relocated to Minnesota. Wednesday, he scored a game-high 24 points on 8-for-12 shooting and was dancing with LeBron James.
Teen center Bol Bol, the Sudanese-American son of the late NBA star Manute Bol, is confident and excited to begin his own NBA journey with the Denver Nuggets. The 7-foot-2 (2.18m) 19-year-old has an amazing 7-foot-8 (2.37m) extended fingertip reach, impressive outside shooting and dribbling moves to match his formidable shotblocking skills and is back to full strength after a left foot fracture cut short his US college career. "I still can't believe it, that I'm in the NBA," Bol told AFP. "I'm very excited. Time has flown by. I can't wait to get going."
But the Sudanese-born Deng is not waiting for the end of his playing days for his next big score. He’s been investing in real estate almost since the time he entered the league in 2004 and has amassed an impressive portfolio—hotels, resorts, condos and apartment buildings—worth $125 million. Deng is part of a new crop of sports stars leveraging their fame and fortunes in new ventures and striking while the iron is hot. In the NBA alone, you have current players like Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin and LeBron James launching film production companies; Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant are active venture capital investors; and Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose are also engaged in large-scale real estate deals. “If you know the market and you are using your leverage and doing the right deals, it is really nonstop with the opportunities,” Deng says.
While basketball in general is going more toward skilled perimeter play — something Bol brings every time he takes the floor — it’s also moving toward mobile defensive play, still a struggle for the Sudanese center. His fit is paradoxical to the NBA: a dynamic offensive weapon who has significant potential to take a lot of that value away on the defensive end. Throw in that there is an over-abundance of big men populating NBA rosters versus a scarcity of NBA wings for the lineups coaches want to put on the floor in tight games, and you can see why Bol is one of this draft’s truly enigmatic figures. “He’s this draft’s swing guy,” one NBA executive told The Athletic. “Some teams are probably going to have him in the top-five, and others will have him outside of the lottery.”
But Kevin Mackey, the former Cleveland State coach who brought the 7-foot-7 Bol to the United States from the Sudan in the mid-1980s, tells a different story. “I gave him his birthday because they didn’t know how old he was,” Mackey, now a scout with the Indiana Pacers, told ZAGSBLOG.
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Two NBA players — Milwaukee Bucks forward Thon Maker and Los Angeles Lakers forward Luol Deng — have Sudanese roots, and the league does a significant amount of work overseas through its Basketball Without Borders program. “We have reached out to the State Department and are in the process of gathering information to understand how this executive order would apply to players in our league who are from one of the impacted countries,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement Saturday night. “The NBA is a global league and we are proud to attract the very best players from around the world.”
Milwaukee Bucks rookie center Thon Maker made his second career start in Saturday night's home game against the Boston Celtics. But teammates and friends were more focused on how Maker might be affected by President Donald Trump's temporary ban on the entry of non-American citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries. Maker was born in Wau, Sudan, which became part of an independent South Sudan in 2011. Sudan is one of the seven banned countries along with Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
Adrian Wojnarowski: For example, NBA has programs and events - including Basketball Without Borders - that recruits, develops and invests in Sudanese talent.
Alex Lasry: I appreciate all the fans concerns and prayers for Thon. And, today a Sudanese refugee who fled oppression and is an incredible young man will make his second NBA start. I'm incredibly excited and proud of him. He's a symbol of what makes America great and all immigrants believe about America. But what's going on in US right now isn't about Thon. It's about all the other incredible immigrants and refugees who will make US a better place that can't come into our country. This is not who we are as a country and doesn't live up to our ideals
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At that time, 10 years ago, Newble, a forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, traveled to Chad to support humanitarian efforts for the thousands of displaced refugees from the Sudan’s Darfur region who escaped the turmoil. Before the current resurgence of consciousness among athletes — such as in 2014 when then-Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose and other athletes donned “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts, or the Missouri football players strike in 2015 and the recent stand taken by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — Newble not only became the first professional athlete to bring attention to the genocide in Darfur when he visited the region in the summer of 2007, but he was among the first American athletes to use his celebrity platform for an international cause.
The fresh claims come less than 24 hours after the towering big man, who migrated from the Sudan to Australia, dismissed any impropriety about his age. “It did get to me in terms of me hearing about it, but it didn’t get to me personally because if it were true, I’d probably be like sideways about it, but it’s not true, so I’m comfortable,” he told The Boston Globe. “I’m not angry or anything. I’ve got to learn what I can say and what I can’t say now.”
Born in Sudan and raised in Australia, Maker has been known to NBA scouts for quite a while but seen rarely. And not at all as a college player. Thus the common reference to him as the “mystery man.” “I don’t know why they gave me that name, but I hear it a lot through interviews,” Maker said Friday after working out for the Pistons. “I tend not to read all that.”
For a person who grew up in war-torn Sudan, lived as a refugee in Egypt and then found asylum in Great Britain, Chicago always will hold a special place to Deng. “I’ve never lived anywhere else longer,” he said. “I grew up in Chicago. I had just turned 19 when I came in. I was just a kid. There are so many things that I’ve learned in Chicago. I’d watch the news and see what’s going on on the south side and then I’d travel and people would talk about Chicago, and I’d feel like they were talking about my home city. It got to that point. It’s really hard to leave. But I’m excited at this new opportunity. This is a great opportunity too.”
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