It was nearly one of the greatest basketball upsets of all time.
South Sudan, 43.5-point underdogs in a pre-Olympic exhibition against the U.S., raced to a 16-point lead and maintained a one-point edge with less than 10 seconds remaining.
But a LeBron James layup with eight ticks left, followed by a missed shot on the other end, dashed hopes of a miracle victory for the African side. The U.S. escaped with a 101-100 win.
South Sudan will make its men’s basketball debut in Paris, opening the tournament on Sunday against Puerto Rico before a rematch against the Americans on Wednesday in the second game of the knockout stage.
Leading the charge for the Bright Stars will be Ottawa native Marial Shayok.
“It’s bittersweet because obviously no one thought we could even hang with these guys or it’d even be a game,” said Shayok, who scored a game-high 25 points in the tuneup. “[But] it was good to see that we got to play with the best team, some may say in the world.”
Shayok, 28, played in the Canada Basketball system through high school but never made an appearance for the senior national team.
He said representing South Sudan — the East African nation where his parents and some of his siblings were born — is something he always knew he wanted.
“It’s an honour, honestly, being amongst some of the greats within these Olympics, only 12 teams being a part of it, us being the newest country in the world, our team only being a few years old,” Shayok said of the region that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011.
“To be on this stage, it’s just a crazy feeling and it’s surreal. So it’s definitely an honour to represent South Sudan.”
Luol Deng turns program around
The South Sudan men’s basketball team officially joined the international basketball federation, FIBA, in 2013.
But the program truly found its footing when longtime NBA player Luol Deng, who once played in the Olympics for England, took over as president in November 2020. Deng, 39, was born in South Sudan but fled the country as a child amid war.
Slowly, Deng gathered the South Sudanese basketball community. He recruited Royal Ivey, another ex-NBAer who is now an assistant with the Houston Rockets, to become the team’s head coach.
And he located players like Carlik Jones, who plays professionally in Serbia, Wenyen Gabriel, who plies his trade in Israel, and Shayok, who spent the past season with the Boston Celtics’ G-League affiliate.
Deng, Ivey and Shayok all played high-school basketball at New Jersey’s Blair Academy under head coach Joe Mantegna, now an assistant for the Bright Stars.
Shayok credited Deng for getting the team to Paris.
“He’s our leader. He’s sacrificed so much time, so much resources. He’s our face in the modern era for South Sudanese basketball players all over the world. He’s someone who’s obviously had a really great career in the NBA,” Shayok said.
“So it started with him and his selflessness, his heart and [that] everyone wanted to be a part of it and help push this thing forward with him is something I think we all take pride in.”
Underdog mentality
South Sudan qualified for the Olympics through last year’s World Cup, where it was the top-ranked African nation.
It lost its opener in overtime against Puerto Rico — the same team it’ll face to tip off its Olympic tournament — but beat China by 20 points and topped the Philippines and Angola in the classification round to punch its ticket to Paris.
Now, they’re the lovable underdog — the type of team that even American star Kevin Durant, a former teammate of Ivey’s, said he could get behind.
“Secretly, I am rooting for them a little bit — except when they play us,” Durant said at a press conference on Thursday in Paris.
The Bright Stars, meanwhile, are entering these Olympics with full confidence they can make some noise. Like many of their counterparts, the South Sudanese players only came together a few weeks ago and don’t have many reps playing together.
“We’re getting better. Chemistry’s building. And we just want to show it out there again, control the things we can, be the best version of ourselves and see what happens,” Shayok said.
It’ll be a tall task in a group with the U.S., Puerto Rico and Serbia, which is led by three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
But games like the exhibition against the Americans go a long way toward learning each other’s habits and instilling belief.
And the entire experience is one that, when the dust settles, will be remembered forever.
“Being an underdog — a super underdog — where no one really thought we could even play that game [and] taking those guys to the final possession, it’s definitely a cool story that I could share with my loved ones in time to come,” Shayok said.