South Sudan, which beat the Chinese men's basketball team, was so poor that it didn't have sneakers and ate only one meal a day

69-89, the Chinese men's basketball team lost by 20 points to South Sudan, the second opponent of the World Cup group stage, counting the 42-point defeat to Serbia in the opening game, and the Chinese team, which had a net loss of 62 points, wanted to qualify from the group, and there was only a theoretical possibility. What kind of team is it that beats our African veterans, and what kind of country is this?

The game was over, and Gabriel celebrated with his teammates

South Sudan, located in eastern Africa, is the youngest sovereign state in the international community, having only gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and was preceded by two brutal civil wars and swindling political negotiations.

The main causes of South Sudan's war of independence were internal ethnic tensions and the unequal distribution of the benefits of the North and South regimes over oil exports. To the pain of the people of South Sudan, there has been no improvement in living conditions since independence, and the civil war has intensified instead of stopping, because of ethnic conflicts and oil interests, and the central government has demanded most of the oil revenues, but the local authorities where the oil fields are located do not agree, so they continue to fight. More than 400,000 people have died in South Sudan and some 2.3 million have fled.

Years of war have left the South Sudanese government at all unwilling and energetic to do a good job in domestic construction, and the country, which originally has abundant oil resources, can only "hold the golden rice bowl and ask for rice", and is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the United Nations, about 70% of South Sudan's 15 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and nearly 5 million are in starvation, making it the worst food insecurity country in the world.

Most of the news about South Sudan is about war and hunger, while a few positive news is often related to sports. Remember James Nion Chienjack who competed in the men's 800m heats at the Tokyo Olympics? Originally from South Sudan, he grew up herding cattle and his father was killed in the civil war. Jack participated in the Olympics as an athlete of the "refugee delegation", was knocked to the ground during the competition, got up and continued running, and when he reached the finish line, he knelt on the ground to hide his face and wept.

A moving scene at the Olympics

Only such a touching but poignant scene will make South Sudan appear in the world's attention with a positive image, and let the people of South Sudan, who have suffered so much, gain national dignity even if it is short-lived.

That's why, when the South Sudan men's basketball team broke out of the World Cup African qualifiers with an impressive 11-1 record, a large number of South Sudanese people waited at the airport to welcome the team's triumph, and the hungry country needed hard-won success to bring hope that "everything will be fine".

It is difficult to practice sports in impoverished South Sudan, where a reporter once went to South Sudan and found that 60% of the athletes there did not even have a pair of shoes that met the requirements, could only eat one meal a day, and the track was full of sand, which turned into mud when it rained.

With such a harsh environment, South Sudanese basketball can rise, and former NBA player Lore Dengju has made a great contribution. Lore-Deng appeared in the city of Wau in South Sudan, where his father was a government official, and his family moved first to Egypt and then to England to escape civil war. After settling in the UK, Lore Deng went to the United States to study and play, playing all the way to the NBA, earning $170 million in his NBA career.

Lore Deng was in the ruins and built the national team

Lore Deng played for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics as a player, but he never forgot South Sudan, and after retiring from football, he became the president of the South Sudan Basketball Association, and devoted himself to the construction of basketball in his country. When Lore Deng took office, South Sudan did not have a national team at all, and it was difficult to find even a regular basketball court in the country. Lore Deng paid for his own basketball infrastructure and also funded more than 100 junior players to the United States to play while going to school. Under the leadership of Lore Deng, South Sudan has established basketball camps for teenagers, with 2,000 to 3,000 children receiving formal basketball training each year. At the same time, Lore Deng also single-handedly built the South Sudan national team, which no one wanted to coach at the time, and Lore Deng also served as head coach for a while.

The South Sudan Basketball Association is very tight, and they can't afford to travel and play games, but they don't have a home arena that meets FIBA's requirements. In order to allow the national team to play smoothly, Lore Deng paid for the entire team's air ticket out of his own pocket.

Lore Deng, a professional player, understands that the basketball foundation in China is important, but South Sudan, which is eager to have a presence in the international community, wants to produce results as soon as possible. Lore Deng decided to go the other way, recruiting players related to South Sudan into the national team while using FIBA's rule "back door" to naturalize.

Basketball has a special meaning for this country

Looking at South Sudan's World Cup squad, half of the players were not born in South Sudan at all, and the other half, although born in South Sudan, either migrated or fled to other countries as children. For example, forward Kuani, who was born in South Sudan, immigrated to Australia when he was 9 years old, and later went to the United States to finish college, failed to be listed in the NBA Draft in 2017, and returned to Australia to play in the professional league.

More than half of the players in the South Sudan national team have an Australian league background, because Sudan was a former British colony and refugees usually chose Commonwealth countries as their first choice for refugees. Many cities in Australia have Sudanese refugee camps, the largest of which is the camp in the western suburbs of Sydney, where most of the refugees are children, and it costs money to flee, and their parents cannot afford enough money to move their families, so they can only send their children to relatively safe areas, endure flesh and blood separation and pray that they can one day be together.

South Sudan is poor, but they are blessed with basketball, and the Dinka people, the largest group in South Sudan's population, have an average height of 1.82 meters, which is the highest average height in the world. There is no shortage of talented teenagers who fled to Australia, and Australia has strong strength in basketball talent training and export. With the joint efforts of many aspects, Australia's South Sudan refugee camps have become a basketball talent pool, with training camps and leagues dedicated to the camps, from which players who stand out will enter the development program of the Australian Basketball Association, and can stay in the Australian league to play after graduation, and also have the opportunity to continue their studies in the United States.

Sandy Deitch in the game

South Sudanese men's basketball guard Sandy Deitch went to Australia when he was 6 years old when his father struggled to get an immigration form and send his child away. Deitch only started playing basketball at the age of 16, and his previous favorite sports were football and skateboarding, but he was discovered by scouts because of his excellent physical condition and went on the basketball road.

According to the Australian Basketball Association's player development process, Deitch entered the Australian league after graduating from high school, went to the United States four years later to play NCAA games while studying at university, and returned to Australia to play after losing the draft in 2018.

Lore Deng plays a "family card" when recruiting players with an "overseas wanderer" background like Deitch.

"How long has it been since you saw your loved ones who stayed in China?"

Lore Deng's strategy comes from feedback he gets from communicating with his players, such as Deitch saying that although he came to Australia at a very young age, he never forgot that he came from the Anuac tribe, always remembering his parents telling him to remember his mother tongue, and the sacrifices his parents made to escape the fighting.

"You still have family and friends over there going on hard days, so I have to work hard." Deitch said.

"Hometown" is a special spiritual symbol for players who have been away from home for many years, and it is their wish to find their long-separated family members, to reunite with their loved ones, and let them see that they are playing for their country, and that warmth and pride cannot be replaced by money and other benefits.

Defeating the Chinese team is more than just a victory

Lore Deng has done a lot of work to help players find their relatives, and just when South Sudan returned from the World Qualifiers, the airport became a large recognition scene, and the players who had been adrift for many years, reunited with their families after a long absence, there was no better motivation to play than family affection.

According to FIBA regulations, if a player has represented the national team in an official FIBA tournament after the age of 17, even if he has the nationality of another country, he cannot represent that country in international competitions, but this rule has an additional clause, if the player changes teams in the best interests of basketball development, the FIBA secretary general can approve it.

South Sudan only joined FIBA in 2013, belongs to basketball developing countries, they can enter the World Cup in all aspects of the conditions are very backward, which is very in line with FIBA's purpose of promoting basketball, so South Sudan has received special affairs treatment, not only can naturalize NBA Development League MVP Michael Jones such as American players, but also can represent other countries played international players into the team.

Because of the particularity of the South Sudan team, their advantages and disadvantages are obvious, the players are physically talented, 10 of the 12 players on the World Cup list are 10 meters tall and nine eight meters or more, and they are all long legs and long arms, and their physical fitness is also quite strong, which determines their defensive mobility, can put a lot of pressure on the ball carrier, and the defense counterattacks the mercury, but because the players come from all over the world, they are not like European and Asian teams where players have played together since childhood.

Lee Kyle had 22 points, 5 boards, 3 assists and 1 block

The lack of tacit understanding has made South Sudan's offense more dependent on Jones and Shayok, who averaged 19.7 points per game in the NBA Development League, and Gabriel's strong offensive basket, who played for the Lakers last season, these three players are South Sudan's offensive trident.

However, individual attacks are a double-edged sword, and once the effectiveness of defensive restrictions is reduced, the attack power of the whole team will be weakened, which is the main reason for the instability of South Sudan's offensive. Unfortunately, Puerto Ricans can seize on their weaknesses and drag the game into overtime to win, but even if we naturalize NBA player Li Kyle, we still struggle. The score grew bigger and bigger, and finally froze at 20 points.

At the end of the game, South Sudan is still taking points, in the World Cup of the jungle, dignity is earned by strength, now with 62 points in debt, the last game against Puerto Rico, is there a miracle for the Chinese team?