Is Khaman Maluach, a 7-foot-2 center from South Sudan, the next Victor Wembanyama?
At age 16, he became one of the youngest ever to play in the FIBA World Cup. He hasn’t seen much playing time. But he’s part of a South Sudan winning fans and praise in Manila, and predictions that South Sudan could become a future powerhouse from Africa.
Maluach only started playing organized basketball in 2019 while living in Uganda. Two years later, as a high school freshman, Maluach began training at the NBA Africa Academy in Senegal. In early August, he was named MVP of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders Africa camp. He has received scholarship offers from Duke, UCLA and Georgetown. Since he was born in 2006, he also has the option of going straight to the NBA draft.
South Sudan also features Chicago Bulls guard Carlik Jones and Wenyen Gabriel, who played for Kentucky and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Luol Deng, who fled the war in Sudan at age 5 and played 15 years in the NBA for Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers, and who also represented Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics, is the president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation. In Manila, Deng has been assisting head coach Royal Ivey, a former NBA player who is also an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets.
After South Sudan beat China in Manila, South Sudan’s vice-president, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior praised the team and said that she hopes her country will be known for something other than civil wars and famine.
“We have had problems in the eye of international community, but this one would really give a smile to the people of South Sudan,” she told the BBC World Service. “There’s an impression, within the people of South Sudan, they feel that they have what it takes, but when they hear the defeat, they go back to their shell, they feel that we cannot do anything right. But victory doesn’t come alone, you have to work for it. So our boys, they really work very hard – they put in a lot of effort to come this far.”
She also praised Deng. “Luol Deng came, after his retirement, to his country. He knows the potential that they have. He knew that he was going to bring us to this place where we are now.”
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