From South Sudan to Australia to the Olympics: Meet The Aussies Representing South Sudan's Basketball Team

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

The Boomers may have a tough group in the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics, scheduled to play against Spain, Canada and Greece, but the one shining light is that Australia don't have to come up against the loaded USA team, who's twelve players combine for eight MVP trophies, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, 84 All Star appearances and 15 NBA titles.

But elsewhere in France, five men with Australian connections will have to guard the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid - as well as Serbia's Nikola Jokic.

Their names are Bul Kuol, Majok Deng, Jackson Makoi, Sunday Dech and Kuany Kuany. They all represent South Sudan in basketball, and are set to feature for the Bright Stars at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The country of South Sudan is probably younger then you, the reader, as it only gained it's independence in 2011. But after an inspiring 101-78 win over Angola at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, which saw the Bright Stars finish 17th, higher then any other African team, they booked their ticket for Paris. This will be the first time a South Sudanese team has ever played basketball at the Olympics.

As Australia begins to grow more diverse, a noticeable South Sudanese population has settled down under. A recent census in 2021 showed that 8,255 Australians were born in South Sudan and 14,273 Australians had South Sudanese ancestry. Many South Sudanese migrants turn to sport when they arrive in Australia and end up reaching high levels in it. There have been fourteen AFL and AFLW players with South Sudanese heritage since Majak Daw's debut in 2013, the Socceroos have called up three players with South Sudanese heritage since 2020, and middle distance runner Peter Bol, who is about to compete in his third Olympics for Australia, was born in the South Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

Basketball is another sport that many South Sudanese migrants either already played in South Sudan or take up in Australia. And it's resulted in five of South Sudan's twelve selections for the upcoming Olympics having ties to Australia.

“I moved to Australia when I was nine but my homeland, South Sudan means so much to me with the history, and it means a lot to my mum" - Bul Kuol (via SEN)

One of these players is Bul Kuol, a 27 year old small forward who came down under as a nine year old. In 2006, his mother, uncle, three brothers, and two sisters left the war-torn country of South Sudan and relocated to Canberra. Kuol's father stayed behind to look after the rest of the family, and his mother is a huge inspiration for his basketball career.

“That’s one of the biggest reasons I’m doing it, because it means so much to my mum. She doesn’t necessarily care so much about basketball but for some reason her, my grandmas, my relatives, my uncles, everybody has paid attention to when I represented my country so for them it means the world, it’s special for me as well. She came to Australia and went to work. She had to provide for me, my brothers and sisters and my families back home".

Kuol's first love was soccer, but when a growth spurt hit him as a thirteen year old, he gave it up for basketball. After growing up in Canberra, Kuol made the move to the USA to play college basketball at California Baptist in 2016. After four years in California, the final two plagued by injuries which granted him an extra year of eligibility, he transferred to Detroit Mercy, where he put up 15.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and two assists in his senior season, placing him in the Third Team All-Horizon League.

Kuol would then return home to Australia, hoping for an NBL contract. And after nine games for the NBL 1 South's Knox Raiders, in which he averaged 18.2 points a game, the Cairns Taipans came knocking.

While no one knew exactly what to expect from Kuol, he immediately impressed with 10.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists in his rookie year, winning him NBL Rookie of the Year. He put himself in good company, with the previous two winners being Boomers point guard Josh Giddey and NBA all star LaMelo Ball. Kuol also may be the last man to ever call himself an NBL Rookie of the Year, as the award was discontinued in 2022 and it's unclear if it ever returns.

Kuol spent three years at Cairns and recently signed with the Sydney Kings. He played a huge role in helping South Sudan qualify for the World Cup, but sadly missed the tournament due to injury. He hopes to make up for lost time in these Olympics.

"I was very shy when I came to Australia. The big problem was that I couldn’t speak English." - Majok Deng (via Athletes Voice)

Like Kuol, Majok Deng also arrived in Australia in 2006 and also wanted to play soccer. Deng arrived in Adelaide with his mother and sister Saada, joining his brother Mawut and other family members who had already settled in Australia a couple years prior. Deng went to an English school when he first arrived down under as a thirteen year old, where he would play soccer during his lunchtimes.

"When I came to Australia, Mawut was much taller than me. I was playing soccer mostly and he was playing basketball. But when I was in Year 10, I grew a lot – a real lot – and became too tall for soccer. Mawut kept telling me I should play basketball, but I wasn’t interested."

While it took Deng a while to warm up to basketball, he eventually decided to give it a shot in 2009 as a sixteen year old. Playing in a Sudanese basketball tournament, where he was teammates with Mawut and coached by his cousin Aciek, Majok soon realized he loved basketball. And standing at 6'9, he knew he could pursue it professionally.

Majok was put on a two year specialist training program by Scott Freer, and Deng credits Freer with helping him adapt to the game so quickly. In December 2010, Deng tried out for the Forestville Eagles, and made the team. What followed was an unforgettable two years in Forestville, as Deng and his teammates won back-to-back Premier League's (now NBL 1 Central).

Deng then decided to try his luck in college basketball in the United States. He played for Indian Hills Community College in his first two years, and played well enough to get noticed by D1 school Louisiana–Monroe, where he played out his final two years of eligibility. Deng put up a respectable 10.7 points in his junior year, but it was his senior year where he broke out, averaging 18.4 points. While he did go undrafted in the 2016 NBA draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves picked him up for the 2016 Summer League.

Deng has said his time in America helped him grow as both a basketball player and a person. After the 2016 Summer League, Deng returned to Australia had managed to carve out a very nice NBL career. Firstly, Deng spent three years with his hometown team, the Adelaide 36ers. Then he played four years in Cairns, where he got to play with Bul Kuol. Finally, Deng was signed by the Tasmania JackJumpers for the prior NBL season, where he put up 7.5 points a game and won the NBL Championship. Deng has now signed a two year contract extension with Tasmania, and all NBL fans look forward to seeing what he can produce next season.

In the meantime, Deng went over to Libya to play for Al Ahly Ly to keep his fitness up prior to the Olympics. In Libya, he averaged fifteen points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists, made the All-BAL Second Team, and was a huge reason why Al Ahly Ly reached the final of the BAL, where they lost to Petro de Luanda. 2024 has been one of the best years of Deng's career, which puts him in very good form going into the Olympics.

“It's a huge moment for the country because they’re the ones that have been going through it for God knows how long” - Jackson Makoi (via NBL Media)

Born in Egypt to South Sudanese parents, Anyiarbany "Jackson" Makoi and his family moved to Melbourne when he was young. Growing up, Makoi played basketball throughtout his childhood in Melbourne, before eventually moving to the USA in his teens. He graduated high school at Saint Louis Christian Academy and was the point guard for the school basketball team.

From there, Makoi bounced around trying to find a team that suited him, playing for Lee College in the 2019-20 season, Daytona State College in the 2020-21 season, and then professional Croatian side KK Vrijednosnice Osijek in the 2021-22 season. Makoi averaged great stats at both the collegiate level, where he put up 16.5 points, 5.9 assists and 5.3 rebounds in his two seasons with Lee and Daytona State, and then in Croatia, averaging 11.1 points, four assists and 3.8 rebounds in his first experience playing pro ball.

In 2021, Makoi returned to Australia, signing with the Sydney Kings. He was seen as a prospect and knew he wouldn't play much in his first season. While he only averaged 2.2 points, 0.8 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 5.6 minutes in fifteen games during his first season, the Kings still won the championship, and Makoi will always be able to call himself an NBL Champion.

The Kings hoped Makoi would take a leap in his second season. However, in February of 2023, disaster struck as Makoi tore his ACL. He would end up needing nearly a full year to recover and only played one game for the Kings last season, which led to Makoi and Sydney parting ways at the end of the season. But Makoi didn't let this deter him, as he signed for the NBL 1 North's Northside Wizards.

In fourteen games with the Wizards, we've started to see Makoi at his best again, as he's averaged 18.6 points, 7.6 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals a game. This has not only been beneficial for his NBL career, as he's signed a one year contract for next season with the Cairns Taipans, but also for his international career, as he's set to play with South Sudan at the upcoming Olympics. And he's excited about it.

“I feel like we’ve finally started to get the recognition we deserve. Some of the players we’ve got now, we didn’t have a couple of years ago. The staff have been doing a great job of getting guys together and organizing things, and the better we’ve become and further we’ve come, the better overall everything has been run as a program."

Still only 24, the Paris Olympics could end up being a huge turning point for Makoi as he begins to carve out his pro career.

“It’s an honour to represent my country, a country we left 23 years ago, to go back and represent them is going to be awesome” - Sunday Dech (via Adelaide 36ers)

Like Kuol and Deng, Sunday Dech fell in love with sport as soon as he touched down in Australia. He just never thought it would be basketball that he'd pursue professionally.

Born in Ethiopia to South Sudanese parents, Dech spent the first six years of his life living in Gambela, a small Ethiopian region. His father, Abraham Dech, and mother, Aret Ochala, were raising six other children along with Sunday, and all nine of them would end up making the move to Perth in 2001 when Abraham was able to secure immigration forms.

When Dech arrived in Western Australia, he immediately fell in love with sports, which he credited to helping him make connections in Australia.

"As kids we picked up things really easily. So once you pick up English, you've got sports which connect you, which is really cool."

Dech tried numerous sports as a child, including Aussie rules, soccer and skateboarding. However, it wasn't until sixteen when he tried basketball. But being 6'5, he adapted quickly, and only three years later he was playing in the SBL (now NBL1 West) with the East Perth Eagles, while also being a development player on the Perth Wildcats.

Dech's second season in 2014 proved to be a very successful one, as he put up 14.3 points for East Perth, an 8.4 point increase on his rookie season. This led to him winning SBL Most Improved Player, and also helping East Perth win the 2014 SBL Championship. On top of that, the Perth Wildcats won the 2014 NBL Championship. While Deng was still a development player with the Wildcats and only played three games all season, he's still listed as an NBL Champion.

After a couple more years playing for the Eagles and developing with the Wildcats, Dech made his way over to the USA to play college basketball. In the 2016-17 season, he played for Metro State, where he averaged thirteen points and 6.9 rebounds. The following season, he transferred to Barry University. At Barry, Dech put up 13.3 points and seven rebounds a game, which led to him being named to both the SSC All-Newcomer Team and the SSC All-Tournament Team.

Following two impressive seasons of college, Dech returned to Australia. Teams like the Cairns Taipans and Brisbane Bullets showed interest in Dech, but he opted to return to the Perth Wildcats. Dech's role in Perth was once again a small one, as he only averaged 1.5 points off the bench over twelve games, he once again won the NBL Championship, as the Wildcats won the 2019 Grand Final over Melbourne United.

Following the Wildcats 2019 triumph, Dech left his hometown in hope of finding a bigger role elsewhere, a move which has paid off. Dech put up 9.2 points a game in the 2019/20 season with the Illawarra Hawks. The following season, he moved to the Adelaide 36ers, where he's played ever since.

Dech may have had a down year this season, only averaging 4.4 points after putting up 8.7, 12.3 and 7.3 in his first three seasons with Adelaide, but South Sudan still called him up to the Olympics, knowing what he can do.

While he only averaged 3.6 points for the Bright Stars in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, his scoring stats don't tell the whole story, as Dech shot 60% from three and averaged nearly a steal a game off the bench, something South Sudanese fans hope he'll be able to replicate again this season at the Olympics.

“For us as a country, the reason why this is so important and means a lot is because we have so much division [at home]” - Kuany Kuany (via FIBA World Cup)

There's not a player who knows what it means to represent South Sudan more then their own captain, Kuany Kuany.

Born in Aweil in 1994, Kuany and his family moved to Melbourne when he was nine. Kuany picked up basketball after arriving down under, and quickly adapted to it. In 2013, he moved to the USA to play for DII school Chaminade. Over four years at Chaminade, Kuany averaged 14.4 points and 7.9 rebounds, while shooting an impressive 42.4% from the three point line. When his time at Chaminade was up, Kuany moved back to Australia in hopes of carving out an NBL career.

While Kuany hasn't quite been able to carve out the NBL career he hoped, only playing 36 games in the NBL and none since 2019, he has proven to be a great player in the NBL1.

After two seasons with the Cairns Taipans, Kuany went to play with the Ballarat Miners, where he averaged 17.7 points. This was good enough to get him another NBL contract, this time with the Sydney Kings. And after it didn't work out in Sydney, he once again returned to the NBL1, this time with the Sandringham Sabres. And in Sandringham, he got even better, averaging 20.2 points a game.

Kuany spent two years in Europe, firstly at Croatian side KK Vrijednosnice Osijek, where he was teammates with Jackson Makoi, before spending a year in Finland playing for Kauhajoki Karhu. He's recently returned to the NBL1, this time with the Keilor Thunder, where he's putting up 14.4 points a game.

While Kuany's career may not look as impressive as some of his teammates, he's no doubt an important piece to South Sudan, being given the honor of captaining the Bright Stars. He made his national team debut at AfroBasket 2021, where he put up 11.8 points as a starter. Then came the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Kuany's role may have been lessened at the World Cup, but he still put up seven points, three assists, 2.6 rebounds and a steal a game, also shooting 33% from three. While he's not the first option on offense, his perimeter defense as well as the leadership he brings as captain is undeniably a key part of why South Sudan are in the Olympics. And he couldn't be more proud of himself and his teammates.

"We're literally one, that's what this basketball team stands for – for unity, a pathway for peace and development in the country, and just a way to change the narrative. For us, that's why it's so much more, so much bigger than basketball"

As well as the five Aussies, South Sudan round out their roster with four players with NBA experience in Carlik Jones, Marial Shayok, Wenyen Gabriel and JT Thor, as well as Khaman Maluach, a seventeen year old 7'1 center who's projected to be an NBA prospect. He's just commited to Duke, teaming up with the projected number one pick of the 2025 NBA draft, Cooper Flagg.

While all these players are very good, they seem to be outmatched compared to other teams, especially the USA team they'll have to come up against in Paris.

At least, that's what people thought. But in an exhibition match against London recently, South Sudan fought very hard against the star-studded USA, only going down to a LeBron James game winner which secured a 101-100 win for the United States.

Despite the loss, South Sudan proved to themselves and the world that they can not only compete against the USA, but beat them. It also will make them feel more confident in their chances of taking down a Serbian team led by reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, as well as a Puerto Rican side led by Jose Alvarado, which on paper looks like South Sudan's best chance at a win.

While South Sudan have the opportunity to shock the world and make it out of the group stage, the upcoming tournament is about so much more than wins and losses for this South Sudanese team. It's about growing the game back home, bringing some light to a country that's gone through such a rough period, and inspiring so many kids back in South Sudan. And for some, they'll be playing to inspire the African community back in Australia, where their basketball journeys began.

South Sudan's first game is against Puerto Rico at 7PM on the 28th of July (AEST). They'll then play the USA at 5AM on the 1st of August, and round out their group stage campaign against Serbia at 5AM on the 4th of August.