Luol Deng Featured in Daily Mirror (UK)

By Nick Webster
Mirror.co.uk

He’s not a household name - at least not in the UK - but Luol Deng could end up as rich as Rooney.

The South Londoner is already a basketball superstar in the United States, having signed a £3.8million contract with the Chicago Bulls.

Nineteen years old and 6ft8ins tall, Deng, who came to Britain as a political refugee, is already being touted as one of this country’s greatest sporting heroes of all time.

If he succeeds, his financial prospects could dwarf the £50,000-a-week salary of new Manchester United signing Wayne Rooney, thanks to the passion for basketball in the States.

Here Deng can walk down the street an unknown but across the Atlantic he’s often mobbed.

Sudanese-born Deng says: “Some people know the name David Beckham in the States but I don’t know if they know what he looks like. A lot of people over there follow basketball so people recognise me. In Britain people look at you for your height, but they don’t know what you do.”

Deng, who learned the game in Brixton, was spotted by the Bulls while at college in New Jersey, USA.

As well as his substantial salary, he is looking at a number of sponsorship and promotional deals which, given the vastness of the US market, will more than double his income.

Only the third Briton to join the NBA league, Deng is relaxed about his huge wages. “It’s a great feeling because you’re getting paid to play, to do what you love to do,” he says.

“But it’s not like I won the Lottery. It’s something I’ve been working for over the years. My contract could have been $20,000 and I would still be playing. Basketball comes before anything.”

And that includes women. After exposure to fame, fans and the media during his year in college basketball, he is well aware that as a wealthy, good-looking sportsman he will get a lot of female attention.

“It’s nice but you have to be careful. You’re going to get attention because of who you are and what you do,” he says.

“If you’re a really outgoing person you’re going to run into a lot of women. But if you’re somebody that’s really focused you’re not going to meet that many people, and I don’t party that much.”

Deng, the youngest man to have played for the senior England basketball team, took his first steps towards becoming a professional when he started training with the Brixton Topcats, aged 12.

Born in southern Sudan, he was one of nine children and a member of the Dinka tribe - the average height of a Dinka man is 6ft5ins and the tribe produces many of the world’s tallest people.

Deng’s father, Aldo, was deputy prime minister but after the coup in 1989 his family was forced to flee. Aldo was arrested and jailed for six months before being sent into exile. Now the family work hard to raise awareness of the plight of those suffering from the fighting in Sudan, and the human tragedy caused by an exodus of refugees.

“I’m lucky to be here, doing what I’m doing,” says Deng. “No way I’m the most talented kid in Sudan. There are kids with more talent than myself, a harder work ethic, but they have rifles and guns and are fighting to stay alive.”

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