NAIROBI, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan hopes to get a wild card entry to the next round of the AfroBasketall qualifiers in June after they finished second to Kenya in the Zone Five tournament in Nairobi.
Former NBA star and South Sudan Basketball Association president Luol Deng, who was in Nairobi to cheer on his side, said despite their challenges the country's national team had proved to be a force to reckon with and will soon be dominating the continent.
"I am so proud of the team. South Sudan had a narrow loss of 68-74 to Kenya to end up as runners-up in Zone 5 qualifiers. Congratulations to all the players, who put their heart and soul into this campaign. We had a massive support base in Nairobi, the unbelievable support. This is only the beginning," said Deng on Thursday in Nairobi.
Though South Sudan missed out on direct ticket, Deng remains optimistic continental basketball governing body FIBA Africa will grant them a through pass to the second phase of the qualifiers.
Only Kenya, from Zone Five, currently will join the 15 pre-qualified teams, which were given a bye in the first phase.
They include Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia and Uganda.
Out of the 12 players on South Sudan's team sheet for the Zone Five pre-qualifiers in Nairobi last weekend, 11 are plying their trade outside South Sudan, mainly through the work and connections of their icon and basketball president Deng.
"I have had my time in the top basketball stage, NBA. While still there, I was doing basketball camps in Australia, Canada, USA, mostly for South Sudanese children," Deng added.
"I wanted them to have the ground and base to look at sport, basketball as an avenue to evade poverty and prosper their talent. Something that would change the story of South Sudan," he said.
Having watched the games in Nairobi, Deng is confident the structures he has in South Sudan and the connection he has will see the country rise from the silence of the gun sound to dominate in Africa and the world stage.
He believes, Africa has huge talent in basketball, just like America, Europe and Asia.
"There are players in Africa, great untapped talent. They are raw and with little polish and support, they will certainly hit the world stage with a bang and make a positive impact on the game," he said.
"If you put the right programs in place, it is possible to benefit from such talent. Rwanda are setting the pace in East Africa with their beautiful facilities."
South Sudan will wait for the call from FIBA Africa for a wild card entry to live their dream. But in the meantime, the 20 teams will meet again in June and December for the second round.
All the five groups will then play in the Final Phase in February 2021 with the top three teams from each group over the two legs qualifying automatically to the 2021 FIBA AfroBasketall to be held in Kigali, Rwanda.
