VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France (AP) — South Sudan coach Royal Ivey says his life feels like a movie right now.
He might be onto something: An underdog, under-funded team from a nation still dealing with the aftereffects of a civil war and bracing for its first free election stuns the basketball establishment by qualifying for the Olympics, then nearly beats the best team in the world and goes on to win its opening contest at the Paris Games.
Yep, that sure sounds like a movie script. And make no mistake: The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team loves the story.
It just has no interest in providing a Hollywood ending.
“Everybody is going to give us their best shot,” Ivey said. “We’re not a secret anymore.”
So true. The U.S. and South Sudan meet in a group-play game at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, two weeks after the African nation — the world’s newest country, one that got its independence just 13 years ago — nearly stunned the Americans at an exhibition in London, falling 101-100 in a game that it led for most of the way.
“Secretly, I am rooting for him just a little bit,” U.S. forward Kevin Durant said when asked about Ivey, who was teammates with both Durant and U.S. assistant coach Tyronn Lue during his NBA playing career and is someone Durant still considers a close friend. “Except for when he plays us.”
Both teams won their first of what will be three group-stage games at these Olympics; South Sudan knocked off Puerto Rico while the U.S. rolled past Serbia. Wednesday’s winner might emerge locked into a quarterfinal berth, depending on the outcome of other games. At worst, the winner will be on the brink of moving into the knockout stage.
For the U.S., that’s no big deal considering it has been to the Olympics on 19 occasions and medaled every time. For South Sudan, everything is a big deal — first Olympics, first win, first time the world will be watching to see if the near-upset of the Americans two weeks ago was a fluke or not.
“Obviously, we’re very confident,” South Sudan’s Nuni Omot said. “We’re going to continue to play our game. Continue to defend. Anything is possible. It’s basketball at the end of the day. We all work hard. We all do the same thing. Just to be able to go up against a team like that, it’s a big test.”
How this team even got to Paris is a story in itself.
Two-time NBA All-Star Luol Deng, who runs the South Sudan program and was the mastermind of making this happen, spends some of his personal wealth — his NBA contracts added up to about $175 million — to cover team expenses. The team famously doesn’t have a training site in South Sudan, because there is nothing close to an NBA-caliber gym in South Sudan. The players fly coach, squeezing big guys into exit rows and experiencing things like seven-hour delays in Rwanda. And yet they did well enough at the World Cup last summer to clinch the Olympic spot, then nearly beat the Americans on their way to France.
“For us, the fact that we’re already here in itself is a massive accomplishment,” forward Kuany Kuany said. “So, we just want to enjoy it, make the most of it, have fun and just show everybody what South Sudan’s about.”
That is, the good side.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, then a civil war broke out two years later and — before it ended in 2018 — left nearly 400,000 people dead and more than 4 million displaced. There are still clashes in South Sudan, the economy is fragile at times and human rights groups warn of food insecurity for millions of residents. The long-awaited election was supposed to be held in February 2023; it is now slated for December.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment, given the strife in that region for so long, so many refugees coming to the United States and other countries for the last few decades, rebuilding lives, and to build a basketball federation amidst the war and the difficulty,” Kerr said. “And then for Royal and his staff to put together a really good team that plays modern basketball — stretch the floor, shoot 3s, attack the rim, it’s pretty dramatic and remarkable.”
It also has captured the Americans’ attention.
There will be no overlooking South Sudan on Wednesday, not after the last time these two teams met and the U.S. needed a layup from LeBron James with 8 seconds left to avoid what probably would have been called the most surprising loss in major international basketball history.
South Sudan’s best player this summer has been Carlik Jones. He has NBA experience; 12 games of it, to be exact. And yet he dropped a triple-double on the Americans in London. If this really was a movie, he would be the plot twist. But a team of NBA stars is leery, rightly so, and U.S. guard Stephen Curry says it’s a reminder that the Americans have what he calls “appropriate fear” of every opponent.
“We’re beatable if we don’t play our game,” Curry said. “But if we do, we have a lot of confidence we can beat everybody.”
The U.S. team saying that would be expected.
Thing is, South Sudan feels exactly the same way.
“This is so surreal,” Ivey said. “I couldn’t experience anything better than this.”