Former NBA star Luol Deng has steered South Sudan's basketball journey to Paris Olympics

Luol Deng was watching his vision coming into focus right in front of him.

It was September 2023, barely six years since South Sudan had played in its first international basketball tournament.

Yet there was Deng, a Sudanese native turned refugee and NBA star, hopping behind a circle of euphoric players inside the South Sudan locker room minutes after it defeated Angola during the FIBA World Cup to finish as Africa’s highest rank team and earn its first Olympic basketball berth.

“Where we going?” Deng chanted repeatedly in a moment captured on social media.

“Paris!” the team shouted back.

Just 13 years after South Sudan emerged from civil war to become an independent nation in 2011, it will mark a milestone next month with its Olympic basketball debut.

It’ll be the culmination of a dream and journey for Deng that has links to his own escape from the ravages of war and introduction to basketball through celebrated Sudanese countryman and fellow former NBA player Manute Bol.

That meeting, along with connections Deng made at a small New Jersey boarding school, helped steer him and the South Sudan team on a path he believes has led to the first of many highlights on the world stage.

South Sudan’s basketball federation president since 2019, Deng thinks the team known as “The Bright Stars” can be a uniting force for a country that’s still finding its way after years of conflict.

“As happy as we are to be there, we really want to compete,” Deng said. “I don’t want people watching us and thinking that we just go there. I want people to see us and see the direction of where I’m trying to take the sport.”

That’s because he knows how far basketball has brought him.

Born in Wau, Sudan, Deng was 3 years old when his father, Aldo, moved with his family to Egypt in the throes of the second Sudanese civil war. It was in Egypt that Deng’s family met Bol, who introduced basketball to them.

They were granted asylum in England, where Deng lived before moving to the United States in 1999 at age 14 after being recruited by New Jersey’s Blair Academy.

Joe Mantegna had just been hired as Blair’s coach. His first two recruits were Royal Ivey, an 18-year-old from New York looking to play a post-graduate year, and Deng, who UConn had steered to Blair hoping he’d eventually follow in his brother Ajou Deng’s footsteps and play for the Huskies.

The day Deng arrived in New Jersey, Mantegna and Ivey were sitting in the stands following a workout.

“Lu came in, in his church shoes, he didn’t have any basketball sneakers,” Mantegna recalled. “We just kind of watched him shoot around. And we both kind of giggled to ourselves that we had something there.”

In those days Mantegna lived next to the freshmen dorm and slowly began to learn Deng’s backstory.

“It was just as we built trust slowly that I heard more and more,” Mantegna said. "Every time we spoke about his story, I learned more.”

Those conversations and the friendship continued after Deng went to Duke and eventually the NBA, where he became a two-time All-Star and played for five teams over 16 seasons.

Then in 2021 Mantegna got a call from Deng with a request. Deng, who was involved with several philanthropic endeavors in South Sudan, wanted to start a basketball program there.

He asked Mantegna if he'd coach.

“He just called me and said, ‘You want to jump on?’” Mantegna said. “I didn’t hesitate. I just said to my wife, ‘I guess I’m going to be spending some time in Africa the next few summers.’”

Mantegna turned down Deng’s offer to be head coach but signed on as an assistant and made a suggestion for the top spot on the bench: Deng’s old teammate, Royal Ivey.

Deng used millions of his own dollars to fund the team in the first two years while the trio slowly built out South Sudan’s roster. They tapped into a stable of players with ties to the country who were playing around the world, including former NBA G-League MVP Carlik Jones and others with NBA experience including Wenyen Gabriel, Nuni Omot and Blair alum Marial Shayok.

They all bought into a vision for the future that Omot acknowledged was hard to see initially.

The first time the team assembled in Sudan they showed up to find a single outdoor dirt court with one rim higher than the other, and no official 10-foot regulation goals.

“A lot of guys are refugees. And we grew up, we moved, so we’ve had the luxuries of having indoor courts and such things,” Omot said. “To go back home and start kind of at the beginning, obviously, we all had a vision of what it could be. It’s just a testament that’s going to show in the future”

South Sudan has risen from 82nd to 33rd in the FIBA world rankings, making it Africa’s second-highest ranked team behind No. 31 Cote d’Ivoire. The road to the medal round in Paris will be tough with The Bright Stars in a group that includes the U.S. and Serbia.

But Omot said the success they’ve had in such a short period of time is emblematic of how fast change is happening in South Sudan.

“What the people will see when they think about our people, they see a lot of nothing but violence, a lot of things that have to do with war,” Omot said. “And for me to be able to put that jersey on and know that people from our country, how much pride and joy they have because of all they’ve seen. It means everything."

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

FILE - Philadelphia 76ers' Royal Ivey defends during the second half of teh team's NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Feb. 20, 2013, in Minneapolis. Ivey is now the coach of the South Sudan men's basketball team, as well as an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

FILE - South Sudan forward Wenyen Gabriel (32) shoots from between Puerto Rico guard Tremont Waters (51) and guard Stephen Thompson Jr. (11) during a Basketball World Cup group B match at the Araneta Coliseum, Manila, Philippines, Aug. 26, 2023. It’s been only 13 years since South Sudan emerged from its second civil war to become an independent nation. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

FILE - Former NBA star Manute Bol speaks at a rally March 23, 2006, at the Independence Visitor Center as part of the Philadelphia stop of the Sudan Freedom Walk, a 300-mile march from New York to Washington. Born in Wau, Sudan, Luol Deng was 3 years old when his father Aldo moved with his family to Egypt in the throes of the second Sudanese civil war. It was in Egypt that Deng’s family met Bol, who introduced basketball to Deng and his brothers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - Wenyen Gabriel (32) of South Sudan competes for a rebound against Zhou Qi (15) and Kyle Anderson (1) of China in the first quarter during the FIBA Basketball World Cup Group B game Aug. 28, 2023, in Manila, Philippines. Luol Deng and South Sudan's coaches tapped into a stable of players with ties to the country who were playing around the world, including former NBA G-League MVP Carlik Jones and others with NBA experience like Gabriel, Nuni Omot and Blair alum Marial Shayok. (Yong Teck Lim/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - South Sudan forward Nuni Omot looks to shoot against Puerto Rico during a Basketball World Cup group B match in Quezon City, Philippines,, Aug. 26, 2023. “A lot of guys are refugees. And we grew up, we moved, so we’ve had the luxuries of having indoor courts and such things,” Omot said about the team. “To go back home and start kind of at the beginning, obviously, we all had a vision of what it could be. It’s just a testament that’s going to show in the future.” (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

FILE - South Sudan players Nuni Omot (1) and Kuany Ngor Kuany (8) celebrate the team's win against China during a Basketball World Cup group B match at the Araneta Coliseum in Manila, Philippines, Aug. 28, 2023. Luol Deng used millions of his own dollars to fund the team in the first two years. The team's leaders tapped into a stable of players with ties to the country who were playing around the world, including former NBA G-League MVP Carlik Jones and others with NBA experience like Wenyen Gabriel, Omot and Blair alum Marial Shayok. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

FILE - Former NBA basketball player Manute Bol poses for a photograph at the Sunrise Sudan headquarters in Lenexa, Kan., June 9, 2008. Just 13 years after South Sudan emerged from civil war to become an independent nation in 2011, it will mark a milestone next month when the world’s youngest nation makes its Olympic basketball debut. Bol died in 2010. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)

FILE - Washington Bullets center Manute Bol towers over opponents and teammates during the team's NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs in New York, Oct. 17, 1985. Just 13 years after South Sudan emerged from civil war to become an independent nation in 2011, it will mark a milestone next month when the world’s youngest nation makes its Olympic basketball debut. Bol introduced Luol Deng to basketball. (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett, File)

FILE - Luol Deng, right, accepts the 18th annual National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award before the 21st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration Game between the Phoenix Suns and the Memphis Grizzlies, Jan. 16, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. It’s been only 13 years since South Sudan emerged from its second civil war to become an independent nation. For former NBA star Deng that journey has an almost parallel connection to his own introduction to basketball through fellow Sudanese countryman and former NBA player Manute Bol. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill, File)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Three times in 11 days, the Pittsburgh Steelers faced a team aiming for the Super Bowl, the kind of elite company the Steelers have spent most of the season trying to prove they belong in.

And three times in 11 days, Pittsburgh found itself doing all of the little things wrong — and some of the big things too — on its way to a lopsided loss, the latest a 29-10 defeat at the hands of Kansas City on Christmas Day that offered a stark contrast of two teams heading in opposite directions.

The Chiefs — who have slogged as much as they have surged while pursuing a third straight championship — scored twice early, forced two momentum-shifting turnovers, had five sacks and closed it out the second they had the chance.

The Steelers (10-6) spent three hours “running on the beach” as coach Mike Tomlin put it. The defense could do little to slow down Patrick Mahomes. The offense had trouble protecting Russell Wilson or generating any kind of sustainable rhythm even with wide receiver George Pickens back in the lineup after missing three games with a hamstring injury.

The result became a familiar one. Pittsburgh trudged off the field searching for answers that may not come, not in time to make a serious playoff run anyway.

“We just need to continue to find ways to get better,” Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “As the season goes on, the margins are smaller.”

Too small at the moment, for Pittsburgh to be at anything less than its best. The Steelers have been far from it during a three-game slide that's seen their grip on the AFC North lessen with each passing week.

Against a Kansas City team that seems to be finding itself, Pittsburgh has gotten away from the identity it carved out during the first three months of the season. The NFL leader in takeaways failed to produce a single turnover. Wilson forced a pass into triple coverage in the end zone that ended a scoring threat. And Watt and the rest of the Pittsburgh defense didn't bring Mahomes' familiar No. 15 to the ground even once.

“You can't afford to spot them points and allow them to scramble around in the pocket and have time,” Watt said. “We didn't have any success.”

No, they didn't. And the Steelers are running out of time to regain their swagger ahead of a postseason berth they locked up weeks ago. Yet all the optimism that they were capable of making a playoff run for the first time since 2016 has dimmed amid a slide in which they've been outscored by an average of 16 points.

“The bottom line is the junior varsity is not good enough, we've got to own that,” Tomlin said.

Pittsburgh gets a bit of an extended break before it hosts Cincinnati in the regular-season finale. How the Steelers respond over the next 10ish days is vital.

“Our belief can't waver,” Wilson said. “If anything, we've got to turn it up even more on our belief.”

Maybe, but it would help if they could also avoid the kind of self-inflicted wounds that have hounded them during one of the more trying stretches of Tomlin's lengthy tenure.

A two-play sequence late in the first quarter symbolized how it's gone for Pittsburgh since a win over Cleveland on Dec. 8 pushed the Steelers to 10-3 and made them a fringe contender for the AFC's top seed.

Pittsburgh was driving down 13-0 when Wilson orchestrated a crisp drive that gobbled up 69 yards in three plays. Jaylen Warren appeared to finish it off with an 8-yard touchdown run. A holding penalty on tight end Darnell Washington nullified the score.

On the next snap, Wilson tried to thread a pass in between three defenders to tight end Pat Freiermuth. Kansas City's Justin Reid easily picked it off.

“It's on me,” Wilson said. “I was trying to give Pat a chance. He's done a good job for us down in the red zone and they made a good play.”

Though the Steelers managed to get within 13-7 at the break, the defense yielded almost immediately. Kansas City scored on each of its first three possessions after halftime, including a pair of touchdowns in just over two minutes at the start of the fourth quarter to put it away.

The Chiefs headed to a joyous locker room where they celebrated in Santa suits after clinching home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Steelers trudged in the opposite direction, their chances of claiming the AFC North dimming and a season once brimming with promise trending toward a familiar result: a quick postseason exit.

“The bottom line is we're just not performing well enough,” Tomlins said. “I'm less concerned about the control of the division and more concerned about the quality of our performance at this juncture.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt listens to a reporter's question following an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid (20) celebrates his interception off Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson during the first half of an NFL football game, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin walks the sidelines during the first half of an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson (3) passes in the pocket against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of an NFL football game, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson (3) is sacked by Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Mike Danna (51) during the second half of an NFL football game, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)